The Septenary
by schwans
Summary: Ordinary citizens caught up in the horrors of the war try to adjust back to normalcy. Audrey Causey a member of the Muggleborn Relocation Operation only wants to return to her bookshop and forget. An origin story.
1. Meyhem

Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. No matter how much I wish I did, I own nothing.

**Chapter One: Mayhem **

_May 6__th__ 1998_

_"Enjoy yourself. These are the good old days you're going to miss in the years ahead." Anonymous _

It was a hell of a mess. Most of the shops were closed, either out of business for a time or just closed for personal reasons, death of a loved one being the most common. The war had just ended and the people partied until dawn when the news was officially announced. The people in hiding were coming out of hiding to discover their homes were completely empty of every bit of money and valuable possession they possessed, they were now taking refuge where they could. To add to the list of terrible and amazing things that were happening in the world, the government was rebuilding itself. At this point it was uncertain if this was a good or bad thing. Maybe it would be less corrupt. Maybe more so than before, nobody really knew.

Unlike most people, thoughts about the government's future in society was pretty far from a young woman's mind, she had more personal issues to be concerned about. Like where her next meal was coming from, where her father figure could be found, and how she was going to get inside of the bookshop that they both ran. Knowing the man the way she did he had probably cursed the door to explode when people tried to open the door without a key or something of that sort. This may have explained why she was standing on a trash bin in front of the door trying to climb in the window. She was doing alright, until she realized that he had jinxed the window, the end result; she was blasted off the bin and landed in a large puddle. The whole war began right when he was about to trust her with a key to the shop too. Stupid homicidal maniacs.

"Bloody Hell Septimus..." The young woman muttered as she picked herself up out of the puddle. "You just had to wait to give me a key didn't you?" She focused on glaring at the door thinking of another course of action to get inside. Some days she really wished she had a more normal father figure, one who was a pinch less paranoid at least. "I could always blow it open, but it might reconstruct itself, or it may take out a city block or something. Darn it..." She kicked the trash bin in frustration. "Okay, Septimus always said he kept another key in his vault in the bank, but he probably still has his vault key with him. Maybe I should've just joined everyone else in the Ministry." It began raining a little harder as the young woman got as close to the door as she could try to stay out of the rain. Actually, it didn't matter if she got wetter, she was already soaked through. "Way to think ahead, Audrey, should've grabbed an umbrella."

Thunder rumbled in the distance, Audrey flinched. She'd never enjoyed storms, she liked it when it rained, she just hated the sound of the thunder. It just made her nervous for some reason.

Finally giving up on the door just swinging open to let her inside, she turned on her heel and walked back to the Leaky Cauldron. She stepped back into Muggle London, turned on her heel and apparated away. All that remained was a couple of fingernails.

Audrey swore under her breath as she realized she had splinched herself again, and was now standing in a puddle of water deep in an alley. She walked forward stepping and occasionally tripping over soggy boxes on her way out. Audrey stepped out to find herself in front of a phone booth. Her waterlogged boots making a swishing sound as she stepped inside the booth, pressed the correct numbers, and received a pin reading _'Audrey_ _Causey: Refugee._'

"Thank you for your cooperation." A female voice said from the phone box. It sounded too happy in Audrey's opinion. "As a visitor to the Ministry you are required to submit to a search, and register your wand at the security desk located at the far end of the Atrium."

"Like hell I will." Audrey snapped at the phone, as the phone booth began slipping under the ground. Audrey stepped out once the glass doors opened and stood inside of a large hallway with fireplaces lining both sides of the hall. Employees stepping out of the fireplaces were either tripping over the wand-less who were drying off, or slipping in puddles of water that never got mopped up. Audrey continued walking down the hall her wand in her back pocket, she reached back often to make sure it was close at hand if needed. She was getting as bad as Septimus; he never left the shop without his wand, even if he was going across the street for a visit with neighbors.

"Hey! Audrey!" A man's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Over here! Hey!" Audrey looked over to find a young man waving at her excitedly from where he was sitting on the edge of a fountain; the statues in the center were mostly melted away, though it was still shooting out water in a few places. Her friend continued waving, pushing shaggy blond hair away from his eyes. "I've got a seat here for you!"

The young woman sat down next to her friend who looked absolutely thrilled to see his friend and comrade. "How's it been, John? Have you seen Ellie yet?" Audrey asked, looking concerned, as John shook his head sadly.

"I stopped by the bakery before I came here. The shop was closed and the flat was empty." John sighed, putting his head in his hands. "I dunno where she's gone. I think she might have gone in to hiding along with most of the population."

"Don't worry; everyone's coming out of hiding now. People will be looking for their friends and neighbors and significant others." Audrey said softly putting her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure she'll be here soon."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Until that happens though, how about you and me go and do something interesting for old times' sake." John said a mischievous smile crossing his features. Just like the old days when they were in school.

"Like what?" Audrey asked, as she started using her wand to dry out her clothes. John was a nice guy with a lot of strange ideas about what was interesting. She remembered the protest he had organized about a high priced robes in the classy part of town a week before the government fell. John and a few dozen like-minded individuals got together and walked inside of the store without their shirts on. He'd called the whole thing _artistic_ of all things. His wife Ellie just rolled her eyes, she figured he did that to keep his soul from being sucked away by his work in the government.

John crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. He looked at the large groups of people nearby. Then he studied Audrey for a minute, and then snapped his fingers in triumph. "I got it! We will go cross-dressing in the government building!"

Audrey stared at her friend, just taking in the idea. She was a little bored, she would admit that, but this was most likely illegal or something. The 'Free-Dress Friday,' incident had earned everybody who took part a detention back in their fourth year. Oh, what the heck. "What do you need?"

"Depends, what's in your bag?" John asked a smile still evident on his face. Audrey took the brown backpack off, and began to look through it quickly for something John could use; she doubted she had anything he would want to use. She didn't bring any skirts with her when she left. Most of her attire for the past year consisted of a t-shirt, trench coat, and jeans. Dressed like a muggle for a year, Audrey couldn't wait to dress like a witch again.

Audrey continued shuffling though her bag, muttering some incoherent phrase under her breath. Thinking about it now, she didn't really remember what she had packed the night she and Septimus had fled their home. She only remembered grabbing a few books, spare clothes, food, toilet paper; the essentials really. Then running out the door following Septimus like a puppy and meeting the rest of his organization, that year seemed so long ago now, she was so terrified at the time.

Then she met the rest of the organization. She started to feel better knowing there were other like-minded people out there who were willing to get those most in danger away, risking their lives in the process. Audrey was rather proud to be a part of it actually. She was the youngest there at eighteen, but she was still a vital part of the whole operation. She was Septimus Lowell's assistant, and in charge of security, making sure that all precautionary measures were taken while on the run. Her old school friends John Townsend and Lucia Ainsley, were working with surveillance, they'd creep in to town and find anybody who wanted to get away, and bring back information as well.

"Find anything, Audrey?" John asked leaning over her bag eagerly, snapping Audrey out of her thoughts. "Come on, you can't be telling me that in that whole bag of yours you can't find just one bit of girls clothing. Well, maybe I'll run through this place starkers if you don't."

Audrey looked appalled, "John, your wife really wouldn't appreciate it if you end up on the front page of the paper, less than a week after the war ended for some other ridicules stunt. Especially in the nude."

The young man's grin widened, "Yes, but it may give her the incentive to come here sooner. My body tends to do that."

_"Aquamenti." _A stream of water shot out of Audrey's wand hitting John in the face. "John, take a cold shower. A _long _cold shower."

Oo0Oo0

John was busy trying to dry himself off while Audrey wondered around the Atrium hoping for some information about the prisoners list. Unable to find out anything for now, Audrey was amusing herself by watching all of the activity around the room. There was a group of school age children sitting in a corner talking in hushed voices, another group in the center of the room of middle-aged women talking about their children, and then there was John talking to a man drinking a bottle of whiskey by the fountain. Audrey ran her hands through her mousy brown hair as she watched John and the drunken man exchange a couple of coins, and a towel. _'Oh, jeez. What now?_'

"Excuse me, young lady. I'm supposed to check the health of the new arrivals." Audrey looked over to find a sinister looking elderly woman in a healer's uniform. The woman's hair was pulled back in a messy bun, large dark shadows under eyes just added to the creepy aura she was giving off. Audrey took a couple of steps back, she felt slightly intimidated. "The sooner you stick out your tongue and say 'ah,' the sooner we can get on with our lives." The healer said coolly, stepping forward.

"Can I take a pass on that offer; I'm not hurt, or sick for that matter." Audrey said backing herself into a corner.

"Sorry, dear, I can't let you do that. We're taking some of the cases in poorer health to St. Mungo's for treatment. We're also requiring everybody to be examined, just so we can be sure no one has any serious injuries. Don't be stubborn, dear, I haven't slept in two days and I miss my grandchildren. At this point very few things are going to prevent me from breaking my Healers Oath. Now open your mouth please."

"Ah." Audrey opened her mouth as the healer popped a thermometer in her mouth.

"Under your tongue, dear, just for a minute, that's right. I need to ask you a couple of questions." Audrey nodded. "When was the last time you've eaten?" Audrey made some strange sounds that could have been words. The healer wrote down her response on a clipboard. "When was your last healer's appointment? Who's your healer? What was the last major illness you had?" This continued until it was time to remove the thermometer. "Thank you for your cooperation. You appear to be in better shape than some of the other people I've seen today; just on the thin side, but some hot meals should fix that." The healer smiled, as she wrote down Audrey's temperature. She seemed much less sinister looking now. "If you need some food St. Mungo's has a food center for the refugees. Have a nice day dear." The healer turned to look for somebody else to examine.

"Pardon me, ma'am?" Audrey said softly, tapping the old healer on the shoulder to get her attention. "But I was wondering if you knew when they were going to release the prisoner and injured lists?"

The healer turned around, brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, appearing highly sympathetic. "No, I don't know when those lists are going to be released, but it better be soon. This place is getting crowded." She had a point; more and more people were arriving to find out about loved ones whom they hadn't seen in months. "If I may ask, dear, who are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for a few people actually." Audrey said, staring at the floor. She looked up when the healer patted her shoulder in a reassuring manner.

"Don't worry, if they're not here yet they are most likely getting picked up now. Don't get too depressed yet." The healer turned around again and walked into a large crowd of people to continue her work. Leaving Audrey feeling a little less concerned.

Crowds were beginning to arrive in the Atrium in droves. Thin, ragged, looking refugees who had arrived earlier had backed themselves against the wall by the lift to avoid getting crushed by the masses. A couple of reporters were taking photographs of the refugees; very few of them looked pleased about it. Audrey had staggered backwards and fell to the floor, people running forward and not noticing the young woman who was about to be run over by the stampede. She felt someone grabbing her roughly by the arm and dragging her to her feet.

"Audrey, come on!" John yelled, keeping a hold of her arm and pulling her towards the lift. "Move it, or lose it you idiots! I said move!" John pushed his way through the crowd. "In the lift! Come on!"

They ran passed the empty security desk, into the lift and watched the scene. The Atrium was completely packed now, there appeared to be very little room to move around let alone find anybody. Refugees had pressed themselves back into a corner, some with their wands drawn. They apparently had the same idea as Audrey and John, no way were they going to let their wands out of their sight. One of the refugees had put up a shield charm, throwing back a few of the people who gotten to close. The reporter who got thrown back into the crowd, leaped to his feet, pulled out his own wand and used a hex that just bounced off the man's shield charm and hit an elderly man full in the face causing him to sprout large leaves to pop out of his nose and ears. Suddenly more people were firing off spells. One lady turned into a pig, an old man became a sparrow, another poor soul turned into a teapot.

"Okay, going up." John panted as the lift began to move. "Fifth floor please!" The last they saw of the Atrium battle the Aurors had come out of the fireplaces to break it up. "Well, that was fun. You okay Audrey?" Audrey had slumped against the wall and slid through the floor, her blue eyes wide. John knelt down next to her. "Come on, we've been through worse haven't we Aud?" Audrey nodded. "And we came out just fine last time we were here right?"

"That's only because Septimus stayed behind to fight off those people who were trying to catch us after we broke out of the courtrooms." Audrey said wrapping her arms around herself. "Septimus is probably rotting away in Azkaban as we speak, John! Who knows if the dementors gave him the kiss right after our escape! Who knows if that guy you were holding at wand point helped him like he promised he would! John, I'm worried...."

"That's kind of obvious Audrey. I keep forgetting how close you and Septimus are." John said quietly, helping Audrey to her feet. "He's like a father to you right?" Audrey nodded as they walked out of the lift and began walking down a busy hallway. A frazzled looking witch was reading rapidly through a long sheet of parchment and nearly tripped over a potted plant. A middle-aged wizard was leaning over his desk reading a document muttering to himself as a green quill scribbled notes on another sheet of parchment. "I wouldn't worry too much about old Septimus, he's a pureblood so I doubt they'd suck out his soul, even if he helped us all escape, blood status was too important to these people. And I'm pretty sure my hostage helped us in some small way." Audrey looked less frightened as they turned down another corridor and ended up in hall that was completely empty. John turned to the door at the end, dug a key out of his pocket and inserted it into the door. "My office, come on in."

Audrey gasped as she realized his office was an absolute disaster. Papers and books on the floor, desk over-turned, his plush desk chair looked as if some wild animal had attacked it, cotton from said chair was all over the floor, and to top it all off; a layer of dust covered everything. John seemed taken aback by the mess, he waved his wand and the dust disappeared. He waved it again and desk flipped back over. Audrey took the hint and whipped out her own wand with a small grin, and with a wave of her wand had the papers re-stacking themselves on the desk. Audrey pointed at the books on the floor and had them re-shelving themselves as well.

"Are my books alphabetizing themselves?" John asked in disbelief as he re-stuffed his chair.

"Yeah, something close to that, b and d keep getting confused." Audrey said with a grin as she kept trying to get the books in the right order. _'Beasts of Ancient Lore' _and '_Dueling with Dragons' _were currently fighting each other for the spot next to '_An Alphabetized List of Diseases'_.

"Well, right order or not it's useful. When did you learn to do that?" John had sat back in his newly stuffed chair and propped his feet up on the desk, looking very comfortable.

Audrey gave him a look. "Who do you think sorts the back room on Sunday?"

"Oh, the back room," John shuttered. Audrey remembered the time he had been locked in there by a very angry Septimus, John had thought it would be a good idea to make Septimus' research papers invisible. Poor John couldn't look anyone in the eye for a week, this was only made worse when Septimus started laughing at him whenever he passed by his office. "You're a braver person then I am."

"No, I'm just cool-headed, according to Septimus anyway." Audrey said as the books finally arranged themselves in order on the bookshelf. "I mean, you have to be to be his research assistant."

"Yeah, Septimus is a little crazy but he's got his uses," John got out of his chair and began looking under his desk. "I mean, he's the one who found a guy to marry Ellie and me on short notice." John banged his head on the desk. "OUCH! Those low-lives!"

"John are you alright!" Audrey as she knelt down next to the desk.

"No! Those scumbags took my seventy-year-old bottle of Firewhiskey!"

Audrey looked confused. "You kept a bottle of really old Firewhiskey in your office?"

John crawled out from under his desk, looking annoyed. "It's so a certain _someone's_ boss will stop coming to my place for the good booze."

Audrey grinned sheepishly. "Well, if he goes over to your place then I don't have to drag him out of a bar at two in the morning."

"I think I need a restraining order." John muttered running his fingers through his hair. "Anyway, we're staying here tonight. I'm not fighting crowds for a spot on the floor. Again."

"I call the chair!" Audrey yelled leaping forward. Sharing the floor with hundreds of veterans of the final battle like she and John had done while they tried help the injured and also to get their affairs in order.

"Fat chance, it's mine!" They both landed in the chair, the sudden impact caused the legs to break throwing them both to the floor. "Ouch... Okay Aud... The chair is yours..." Audrey muttered something into the carpet.

Oo0Oo0

_**Author's Notes: Wow, it's been a while since I wrote fanfiction. At least three years. It's good get those evil plot bunnies on paper so now they'll leave me alone. Seriously, they're very persistent.**_

**_This story takes place after the Battle of Hogwarts and the defeat of Voldemort. I imagine the toll on the citizens and survivors was emotionally, physically, and politically damaging. I doubt the people were very trusting of the government after the persecution and attempted genocide of the Muggleborn community. I really doubt the persecuted Muggleborns, like John and Audrey, were in a very forgiving state of mind afterwords._**


	2. Reconnaissance

**Chapter Two: Reconnaissance **

_May 7__th__ 1998_

_ "__Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes."Kenneth Hildebrand _

A quiet, peaceful morning in the highest office in the land, all was ready for a new day of working on an assortment of projects to clean-up the mess that was left after the war ended. Like the growing lists of the dead, missing, prisoners, and injured. Those lists kept getting longer as the days passed, more bodies being found in ditches, more and more people coming out of hiding, helping the injured get to St. Mungo's. It was enough to drive even the sanest person off the deep end, just looking at the statistics. Soon, the names would be forgotten, replaced by a number. Their deeds; forgotten. Their names; never spoken. Their lives; remembered only by those who loved them. This was the aftermath of a war that could have been prevented. Yet here were people, trying to pick-up their lives where they left off.

In an office at the end of a deserted hallway, there are two people preparing to do just that...

A young woman with wavy, boyish, mouse brown hair was stretched out in a large plush chair that was missing all four of its legs. Her limbs where hanging off the arms of the chair lazily. She rolled over and ended up of the carpeted floor. Not a far drop. Under normal circumstances, this would have woken her up, but she had been rather tired lately. Most likely catching up on all of the sleep she missed while on the run for the past year. It was eight in the morning now, she rarely slept past seven. She curled up into a ball on the floor; the office was just a little cold for her liking, the sleeping habits of Audrey Causey in the nutshell.

Lying out on a cushion by the bookshelf in the corner of the office was a rather large tan colored rabbit with white-tipped ears. Its ears flicked back and forth, as if expecting a predator to come in the office and eat him for breakfast. The rabbit's nose twitched as its limbs began growing, becoming more human. Soon the half-conscience figure of John Townsend appeared in place of the rabbit that had been there moments before. The young man stretched, wincing as his shoulders popped loudly. Hands behind his head he looked around his office and realized something; they could have transfigured the chair and desk into a couple of mattresses at least. And he thought Audrey was the resourceful one, unless she _wanted _to sleep on the floor. John looked over at his friend who was curled up on the floor by the chair she had claimed the night before. That is most likely why she did not bring up transfiguring anything. She wanted to sleep in a chair or on the floor.

"Could've lemme have an actual bed, Aud." John said to himself, glaring at the sleeping figure of his friend nearby.

"Wasn't worth the effort." Audrey replied, drowsily. John promptly scrambled backwards and collided with the wall behind him.

"Jeez, I was starting to think you'd died or something!"

"Do I sound dead to you?"

"No."

"Okay then." Audrey sat up, rubbing her eyes. She was up now and was going to stay that way. "Anyway, what about breakfast?"

John shrugged; he hadn't thought that far ahead yet. "Not sure, we could try the cafeteria." He checked his watch, "I know for a fact the house elves get to work at six and open at eight. I think I'll run down and see if they'll open shop a couple hours early for a regular."

"Sounds good, wait a second, they serve breakfast here?" Audrey moved back into the chair behind her.

"Yeah, it's for all the workaholics who don't want to go far from the office." Audrey raised an eyebrow. "I used it before me and Ellie got married. Merlin knows I can't cook, you should know that after I gave you and Lucia food poisoning," John sighed.

How could Audrey forget? She had been ill for days, the mere thought of that incident made her gut do unpleasant flips. Ellie's pastries, on the other hand, were to die for. Many of her customers had asked about her secret recipe or secret ingredients if she used those instead. Ellie swore that whenever people asked that question the recipes were going with her to the grave. Many remained hopeful that she would someday put them on fliers for the world to see. Though this was a fantasy and, most likely, never going to happen.

"Audrey, are you thinking about Ellie's pastries?" John asked as he stood up.

"How'd you know?" Audrey said as she continued staring off into space.

John chuckled, "Well, you're drooling a bit." Audrey wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her jacket. "Anyway, I'm off to get some food, back in a minute." The young man walked out the office door, leaving his friend alone with his bookshelf.

Oo0Oo0

"Hey, Audrey, I got a loaf of fresh bread!" John said loudly entering the office, looking ecstatic. "It's warm and already buttered!"

Audrey looked up from where she was laying in front of the bookshelf; she had been reading a book of wizarding law with extreme interest. She had been reading a chapter about the Wizengamot, its establishment, and its uses among society. Audrey snorted; the Wizengamot had its uses on occasion, she was not stupid enough to think otherwise. Though back during the great escape a few days before the final battle, they just proved themselves to be too comfortable with power, believing themselves infallible, unable to fall from the grace they had attained by bloodshed and terror.

"Really, could I have two pieces please?" Audrey said softly, closing the book and smiling over the recollection. She took the plate and ate her bread quietly.

"This has nothing on Ellie's or yours for that matter, but it's still good. What do you think Aud?" John asked a few minutes later, leaning back in the newly repaired chair, and the empty plate in his lap.

"I think we should find out if Septimus is on any lists or not." Audrey said stoically, her fears about her father figure returning in full force.

John gave her a small smile, "I heard a rumor that there are a couple of mostly completed lists on the top floor by the Minister's office. I also overheard an Auror in the cafeteria talking about some boxed files he saw a couple of days ago on the fourth floor. He thinks they're still there, so how about a little reconnaissance mission?"

"Sounds like fun. But considering our pictures were all over the _Prophet_ for the past year I don't want us to be recognized if anybody's lurking around this place."

Audrey looked up at John as he smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "I do think you have a point, we were seen together on numerous occasions. But, if anybody's here, I doubt they'll look twice at one of us. Just don't put your hands in your pockets this time." John's features began to shift and contort into something distinctly animal. He was shrinking and getting hairier as his ears became longer and moved to sit on the top of his head. The rabbit looked at Audrey and scratched at the door. Audrey set her plate aside and opened the door and followed John down the corridor to the lift where Audrey scooped him up and placed him into her magically enlarged coat pocket.

"Fourth floor, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, incorporating Beast, Being, and Spirit Divisions, Goblin Liaison Office, and the Pest Advisory Bureau." Audrey was really starting to hate that perky voice. The grilles opened and Audrey stepped out, she looked around quickly noticing the floor was completely empty of all signs of human life. John scrambled out of Audrey's pocket, looking irritated.

"I don't see any boxes, but I want a look around John. Nobody's here so we should be fine."

John was a good guide to the confusing, almost mazelike, Ministry building. It was still early and there was hardly anybody around to see the young woman and the illegal Animagus walk through the dimly lit halls. Audrey followed closely trying to crush the urge to run into every unoccupied office and cubicle they passed to find out any information she could about the other leaders and survivors of the Muggleborn Relocation. She gave in once and tried to enter an office without a nameplate. Audrey felt John's rabbit teeth sink into the hem of her trench coat and try to pull her away from the door.

She looked down at John solemnly, "I think those files got moved. Maybe they're in an unused office like this one? I know, the longer we wait to get to the top floor the harder it's going to be to get into the Minister's office. But do you really think they would keep those lists upstairs? It doesn't make any sense… They thought muggleborns like us were animals, and if not they treated us like thieves and liars. They almost gave us the Dementor's kiss for not having any magical blood claims." John released his grip on Audrey's coat. "_Alohamora,_" The door swung open allowing the duo inside.

The desk stood in the center of the room empty and alone. The desk's chair overturned and the drawers' contents spewed upon the floor. Audrey looked down as she heard a cracking sound beneath her foot. It was a picture frame of a man, a woman, and a young boy, all three were waving happily. She felt her throat tighten as her eyes began to water as she picked up the photograph. Adamina and Martin Garland paid dearly for their involvement. Audrey was not sure what happened to the boy.

Audrey took a deep, shuddering breath and put the picture back on the desk. Turning towards the filing cabinet and kneeling down to flip through the alphabetized drawers. If there were any files they were long gone. "Damn! C'mon John, Adamina's files were cleared out a long time ago. Probably right after she got ousted by working for us." Audrey followed John out of the office and towards the lift once more.

Each stop on the lift to the top floor made Audrey's heartbeat sound louder in her ears. John was poking his head out of Audrey's pocket his ears twitching rapidly, straining for sound. Reckless stunts were not becoming of Ravenclaws, intellectual pursuits were more their style. But if there was a bit of knowledge and understanding at the end of a stream of reckless actions, they wouldn't rest until they had it read and memorized.

_Ba-bump!_

Audrey stepped out of the lift onto the top floor. There were two wizards sitting outside of a door at the end of the corridor.

_Ba-bump!_

Maybe this wouldn't be too hard. They were playing cards. They were distracted.

_Ba-bump!_

One got up and the other followed. They had seen her. Audrey fingered her wand nervously, the tension and adrenaline coursed through her body. John shivered and disappeared into her pocket. One of the men spoke, his voice had a soft, reassuring quality. "Hey, you shouldn't be here."

No turning back now. Audrey drew her wand and pointed it at the men. Her thoughts formed around two simple spells that flowed like water into her mind. She pointed her wand at each man in turn. '_Confundo! Obliviate!'_ Both men stopped short as Audrey ran forward to modify their memories. The man who she Obliviated was staring blankly into space as Audrey put the lighted tip of her wand to the center of his forehead. "Don't ask any questions. I am an employee of the Ministry of Magic. I am here to see the files on people who were imprisoned during the war. I need you and your partner here to undo the spell work that keeps people out and let me in. If anybody asks, you didn't see anybody." The man nodded as Audrey faced the other man who seemed to be snapping out of his confusion. _'Obliviate.' _

_Ba-thump! _

The deed was done. The wizards undid the spells and Audrey walked into the main office, closing the door behind her. She took John out of her pocket and set him on the floor where he shook himself and was soon standing next to Audrey on his own two feet again. John yawned and stretched and strolled over towards the Junior Undersecretary's desk and spun around on the swivel chair before sorting through the neatly organized papers on the desk.

"Have I ever old you how comfortable your pockets are?" John chirped as he opened a file that was lying on the too clean desk. "Hmm, now where did he keep that…? Ah ha! Hey, before we really get started on this witch hunt have a look at this picture."

Audrey took a quick sweep around the office before walking over to the desk to look at a photograph John had found in a desk drawer. "Why are you showing me this?"

John smiled, "I'm glad you asked. This picture was taken at a friend's birthday party. That night we were all thrown out of three pubs that we actually remember. We took this at Felix's flat before we went out." John passed the picture to Audrey of examine. Audrey glanced at it then set it down on the desk.

"C'mon, let's get started."

They looked through filing cabinets for half an hour before they started to find anything of interest.

"Remind me why you said this sounded like fun?"

"Because it sounded fun at the time," retorted Audrey as she flipped through a filing cabinet. Every name of every person who had turned up out of hiding so far was in this cabinet. Audrey was not too worried about being found at the moment. It was still very early in the morning and Audrey figured most of Minister Shacklebolt's direct underlings were just waking up or were helping elsewhere; the Minister was probably just rolling out of bed as well. How they were going to deal with the shortage of Aurors and other law enforcement was probably at the top of his list at the moment. Without the resources to catch what remained of Voldemort's supporters then things would fall apart quickly, Audrey figured.

John snorted as he continued reading through papers on the desk. "Dang, keep forgetting this guy's a nut, it's too organized. I'm really, _really_ sure he's got everything color coded by where it's gotta be sent." Audrey looked up from the filing cabinet and raised an eyebrow. "Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just prefer a little organized chaos, probably why I spend so much time at the Septenary."

"Here, here!" Audrey pumped a fist in the air enthusiastically. She agreed with her friend fully on that one, organized chaos was the only way to describe her home. She knew where things were located and it was not sickening levels of clean. Though she didn't really enjoy opening all of the boxes of books containing Merlin-knows-what in the back room, she tucked the color coding idea away for later. She would use a nice bright red on boxes containing those highly dangerous cursed books that Septimus liked to keep in stock.

Continued browsing through the files brought forth the discovery of the personal information of all of the people who had been convicted of the crime of supposedly stealing magic. Audrey plucked up a couple of folders with interest, one was John's the other was her own. Setting John's aside for him to read later, she opened her own, glanced at the picture of herself waving and smiling pleasantly, and began reading through the lists of crimes she was wanted for. Treason, direct disobedience to the law, aiding undesirables, assault upon Ministry employees, the stealing magical power, crimes against the Ministry of Magical Britain and illegal broomstick enchantment.

A wanted woman, that's what she was. John probably had the same charges under his belt as well. That could not be helped; both knew the risks of getting involved in Septimus' game. These were just a small price to pay for keeping their freedom and helping other muggleborns escape the country. They could not save everybody, they sure did try though.

"What are you two doing in here?" The man standing in the doorway was an imposing figure. Audrey's eyes darted to the man's wand holster. It was a standard issue of the Auror department. Audrey felt her mind connecting the dots. John seemed to reach the same conclusion as they both looked up at the new arrival in horror. They had just been caught by none other than the temporary Minister himself.

"Um," Audrey's eyes darted around the office. "We're filing! We got sent up here to alphabetize and update your employee's files!"

'_We're dead.'_

"Really, well, my assistant is known to be quite organized, I promise you everything is in order." The temporary minister said slowly. John ducked behind the desk.

"Oh, really…" Audrey said as she got to her feet, putting the files away as she had found them. "Wrong office then, come on, Bob! I thought this was the wrong floor…" Audrey walked back behind the desk and grabbed John's shirt sleeve and pulled him roughly towards the door.

"Hold it." Minister Shacklebolt stepped in front of the two attempting escape artists. "Why aren't you down in the Atrium with the others?"

"Well, sir," John started nervously. "You see we were staying in my office to avoid the herd of desperate people. We've almost gotten run over one time too many." Audrey nodded in agreement as she let go of John's shirt sleeve. "Besides, my names on the door so I'm presuming that I have a job."

The older man nodded, "Yes, every employee who was on the run will still have their jobs, unless they are unwilling to return or unable to."

John pretended to whip the sweat off his brow. "Oh, that's good. C'mon, Aud, let's see if the lists have been released to the public yet!" John said, sounding eager to get away and see if his wife had arrived yet, he put a hand on his companions shoulder. "Thank you very much!"

The new minister stepped aside to let them by. Audrey looked back at the two wizards who were guarding the office to find they were playing cards once more.

Audrey and John didn't say anything until they were alone in the lift, out of earshot of anybody who might have overheard.

"Man that was close." Audrey said leaning against the wall and absent-mindedly sticking her hands in her coat pockets. "I thought he was going to send us to Azkaban or something."

"Audrey, the war's over."

"Oh, right." They spent the rest of the ride in silence, until they reached the floor where John's office was located. They stepped out of the lift only to have John practically shoved back inside thanks to the enthusiastic hug his wife was giving him.

"John are you okay? Did you get enough to eat? How are you feeling? I missed you!" Ellie Townsend asked excited, her green eyes wet with tears.

John looked confused for a couple of seconds before realizing this was his wife. "I missed you too, Ellie. I missed you too…"

"This is all too sweet. I think I'm getting a cavity." An old bearded man spoke up from where he was watching the scene. He straightened his robes and set down a basket covered in a blue blanket. "How've you been Johnny-boy? Ellie's been worried sick about you, obviously." He straightened his glasses and turned to face his research assistant, a crooked grin crossing his features. "Hey Audrey, do anything interesting while I was away?"

Audrey did not say anything; she just ran forward and threw her arms around his neck. "Of course we did something interesting, while you were propping your feet up in the slammer, we helped finish a war." Audrey said as she stepped back and gave the older man a smile. It was great to see Septimus again.

"Wait a minute, you both fought in the Battle of Hogwarts!" Septimus said loudly, the basket beside him gave a shrill cry. "Damn it. Ellie your charge wants you."

Ellie untangled herself and rushed to the basket, she hummed softly as she picked up the wiggling bundle inside. Audrey peeked over her friend's shoulder to realize that what she had originally believed to be a basket of bunny shaped pastries was actually a baby.

"Aw, he's cute, what's his name, El?" John asked quietly as he looked at the infant in his wife's arms.

Septimus put a hand on Audrey's shoulder, causing her to step back. She looked up at Septimus who was looking rather impish.

"Well, he's named after his father, so everyone's just been calling him Junior." Ellie said quietly, as little Junior started to fall back asleep. She turned to face her husband. "Though his birth name is Jonathon Humphrey Townsend the second." John immediately hit the floor with a resounding thud.

"Don't you think that went well Ellie?" Septimus asked gruffly as Ellie put the baby in Audrey's empty arms and knelt down next to her husband shaking him by the shoulders gently.

Ellie looked over at the older man while she patted John's face. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realize I was pregnant until after you all disappeared!"

"Poor man's going to need a drink after this, good thing I've got some of the good stuff right here." Septimus pulled out a bottle of seventy year old firewhiskey, "took this out from behind the security desk down in the Atrium. I have no idea why nobody drank this already."

Audrey shook her head in disbelief as a small crowd began to gather around them.

Oo0Oo0

**Author's Notes: Thank you to my reviewers! Nice to know people are out there reading and enjoying this. **

**And now it's question time. "What do you think constitutes as a strong character?" I'd love to hear your opinions considering one of the reasons I'm writing this is for a better understanding of characterization.**

**I Accept Anonymous Reviews! **


	3. Ideas

**Chapter Three: Ideas**

_May 8__th__ 1998_

_"An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox." Lao Tzu _

"A little more to the left, Audrey. Just a little more now… That's the ticket!" Septimus instructed loudly from where he sat on the couch in the shop he ran in Diagon Alley, not even looking up from the papers he was reading.

Audrey muttered mutinous things under her breath as she waved her wand the bookshelf stood up. Why wasn't he helping, he said his back was sore, not that his arm was broken. And that could be mended easily.

"It's great to have young, able help. Why, old Cavan Toft has no idea what he's missing."

"Yeah, slave labor." Audrey continued her mutinous muttering as the books began flying onto the shelf. She was the only person employed at the Septenary full time. It was a rather large bookstore meaning Audrey was usually rather busy most of the day and spent her evenings doing rune translations. When Lucia got out of Saint Mungo's Audrey intended to ask her if she wanted to work part-time, cut her hours a bit. But for now, being the sole worker was almost as stressful as helping fellow muggleborns get away from the government's reach.

"What was that Causey?"

"Nothing Septimus!" Audrey replied as she flicked her wand a little too forcefully causing some books to fly into the back of the shelf.

_'He could give me a hand here. The sooner I get finished the sooner I can help with those translations before we open up again tomorrow.' _Audrey thought as she placed the rarest book in the shop on a wooden pedestal by the window to attract some rare collectors. Though they would never read it as it was a cursed book that one would never be able to stop reading. The book itself was well known in Germany but completely unknown in to most of the local collectors. Septimus was confident he would not be asked funny questions about how he had obtained the thing. Audrey had doubts.

He was waving his hand again. "Good, I could use your help when you're done with that woman's work. Now, have you seen my research notes? I've got another theory to-"

Audrey whipped around her wand pointed at the couch Septimus was sitting in. "Woman's work. Alright that's it! _Wingardium Liviosa!" _Audrey yelled sending the couch with her boss still sitting on it a couple of inches in the air, and towards the open door. The arms of the couch collided with doorframe; Audrey idly flicked her wand to turn the couch sideways and guided it into the street. Audrey then flicked her wand at Septimus's cane and tossed it out after him. Many shopkeepers stopped what they were doing to see what Septimus was cursing about this time.

The couch touched down in the middle of the semi-crowded street, Septimus still cursing irritably about sour little assistants who had no idea the opportunities they had been given. A couple of passersby snickered at the older man who had just been removed from his lodgings. Septimus gave them a dirty look over the rims of his glasses and they clammed up immediately continuing on their way.

Audrey brushed her bangs out of her eyes and got back to the task at hand. She enjoyed working in the bookshop; she got to read about some fascinating topics, especially in the research field. Septimus made sure to keep up with the research of his rival and former partner, Cavan Toft. Septimus said he stole some of his research on the power of the number seven and took full credit for it; Toft was now living the high life, while Septimus ran a bookstore in Diagon Alley.

She picked up the last bookshelf with her wand, propping it against the wall. Audrey looked around the shop excitedly; once it was cleaned up a bit it looked just like it had the night they had left. The creaky, wood floors, scarlet rug under the coffee table next to the couch she had just sent out the door, and sitting chairs by the fireplace, that little area was her favorite place in the whole store. It was surrounded by bookshelves, giving it a cozy feeling whenever she lay down on the couch with a good book in the middle of winter.

Behind the counter was a plain wooden door that led to Septimus's office. The door next to it led to the back room. Audrey found the place a little unnerving on occasion, mostly due to the things Septimus kept in there. She wasn't really sure what half the stuff was, or what it did, but most of it was guaranteed not to hurt her. Though it did not make her feel much better about sorting through it. Especially those illegal cursed books Septimus tried to get people to buy 'under the counter', so to speak.

Peering back toward the window ideally as she watched her boss and comrade levitate the couch back to the front steps of the shop she saw someone looking in through the shop window at the book Audrey placed on the pedestal a few minutes before. A large hat and cloak covered most of its features. The small dirty figure looked at a list in its hand and back at the book as if double checking the title. It met Audrey's eyes and ran off into the small dispersing crowd.

"What do you mean you lost my shipment?" Septimus yelled from the doorstep, his voice rising in anger, causing Audrey to stagger into a bookshelf. "This is why I trust owls more than shop runners like you."

The man took a couple of steps back in sheer terror. "I wouldn't say it was lost per say, I would say it's more along the lines of misplaced."

"Misplaced where?" Septimus leaned forward, resting his arms on the back of the couch, looking the man straight in the eye.

The young man stepped back a couple more paces. "I may have left it at Borgin and Burke's sir. I'll get it if you-"

"No, my assistant will get it." Septimus turned around and walked into the shop, "Audrey! I've got a job for you!"

Audrey came out from behind the bookshelf, looking relived that Septimus failed to smite the messenger. But feeling slightly horrified at where she thought she was being sent. "What do you need, Boss?"

Oo0Oo0

'_Okay, I deserved this. Why would he be ordering anything from Borgin and Burke's? Probably another item for his research projects, or perhaps not a cursed book, this time a screaming book…' _Audrey continued her mutinous thoughts as she stepped inside the store. Glad to be off the darkened streets she disliked so much. She pulled down the hood of her cloak and seeing nobody behind the counter began examining the merchandise.

Some, if not all of this stuff, was an aspiring Dark Lord's dream. A Hand of Glory, cursed jewelry, and what Audrey believed to be poisons of the slow killing variety. Not anything she would want to use or buy for that matter. Suppressing a shutter Audrey walked towards the counter, glancing at the suit of armor that seemed to be turning to watch her.

"Mr. Borgin, you here?" Audrey squeaked as the helmet turned to face her completely. "Mr. Borgin!" The armor's hand began to move. "Did someone leave a package for Septimus Lowell?" The armor began to walk forward. Audrey screamed and dove behind the counter drawing her wand.

The armor walked past the terrified young woman and into the room behind her. Its helmet spun on its shoulder plates motioning with a steel hand to a box behind the door. Audrey stood up slowly, keeping her eyes on the suit of armor as she walked towards the crate. She took her eyes off of the living armor to read the label on the crate. 'To be sent to the Septenary'

"Oh, well, I'll take this off your hands then." Audrey said tapping it with her wand raising it up into the air. "Thank you very much!" Audrey called over her shoulder as the armor resumed its position next to the counter.

Throwing the hood of her cloak back on and making sure the crate was still following her, Audrey broke into a steady jog. She did not want any more surprises.

Sadly, Audrey was rather prone to surprises. She stopped short causing the crate to bump into her, as she heard the unmistakable giggle of a girl. Audrey turned in the direction of the sound only to have the source of the sound, wherever it was coming from, gone as quickly as it came.

Then she heard voices, sounding like they were coming from behind a nearby shop. Audrey crept over curiosity overtaking her. Somehow, Audrey doubted the owners of those voices were here to shop. Peering around the corner of the building, Audrey saw a small group of people standing by the back street that led behind the shops. All three of their faces were covered by dark cloths around their mouths. Judging from their size Audrey presumed they were children. Their voices echoed off the walls of the buildings.

"Come on, it's an easy job!" This one had long, sandy blond hair poking out of a mint green hat and a deep blue cloak draped over its thin shoulders. Audrey presumed this one was a girl.

The second one was a rather lanky boy whose voice was cracking, much to his female companion's amusement. "C'mon Cappie, it won't be that hard. Not as hard as some of the other things we've had to do the past year. That masked- would you stop laughing Serena! It's not funny! Anyway that masked guy promised us at least fifteen percent. That money might help tide us over until we can find out what we're going to do now that the war's over."

The third figure seemed oddly familiar. Audrey did a double take as she realized it was the kid from earlier that day. The kid adjusted his hat and looked at the boy, "Any ideas about that?"

"I'm not too sure at the moment. We'll have to see what happens."

Serena looked up and around, "Hey, we better go. It's almost time for lunch." The three figures took off and seemed to disappear.

Oo0Oo0

"Well, what do you think Mr. Lowell?" The man leaned back in his chair propping his feet up on the table, looking both proud and nervous at the same time. "I think this may be one of my better ideas myself."

Septimus leaned back as well, arms over the back of his chair, a crooked grin marking his features. Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose he leaned forward so he could look the young man in the eyes.

"Bennett, you're right. I like it and I'll support it in a court of law, if it comes down to that. But you may need more people to support your scheme before anybody else, or even the Ministry if you feel so inclined, takes you seriously. I really think this is the best idea to come out of your mouth in almost two decades though."

The younger man nodded, "I understand that, where do I start?" He paused for moment, "Hang on a second, are you implying the last good idea I had was when I was six?"

"You start at the beginning of course, just like everything else," Septimus said ignoring the second question, and looking up at sound of the shop door opening. "Hello Audrey, get the package?"

"Yeah, I got your package, managed to avoid a lady selling toenail clippings as dark magic charms in the process." Audrey replied setting the crate down on the floor by an empty bookshelf to be sorted through later. Septimus chuckled.

"Audrey, it's been a while." The young man said leaping quickly out of his chair to shake her hand then pull her into a tight hug. Much to Audrey's surprise as she hugged him back. "Where have you been? Septimus won't tell me a thing about what you two have been up to during the war."

"I'm not in a position to tell you about that either." Audrey replied softly as they let each other go then stuffing her hands into the pockets of her robes shyly. "Sorry Russell."

Russell shrugged good-naturedly. "It's alright; I just wanted to know how the hell you broke out of the courtrooms without getting killed."

Septimus and Audrey exchanged nervous looks. Both were under the impression that the Ministry never would have let that little incident get beyond the walls. Audrey thought they would have stopped with those wanted ads n the _Prophet._ Obviously, they were both wrong in that judgment.

"Where did you hear about that of all things? Surely some of our other accomplishments would've reached your ears?" Septimus asked as Audrey sat down in a chair next to him.

"I've got a friend and a cousin in Magical Law Enforcement." Bennett answered casually. "My friend says that they're rather shorthanded at the moment. Apparently, most of the department was wiped out and they won't be looking for any of the petty criminals wandering around here on a regular basis. Apparently now they're focusing on rounding up the last of the Death Eaters around and out of the country."

"I'd love a piece of that action," Septimus remarked excitedly, "back when I was working for the Auror department, we were after this scumbag-"

"Anyway," Bennett interrupted, "since some of the locals won't be too happy about this arrangement, I was thinking about getting people together to go after our local problems. And I was wondering if you knew anybody who would be interested in this little idea of mine Audrey. Maybe you'd like to be involved yourself?"

Audrey leaned forward in her chair looking rather interested in what Bennett was saying. It sounded like a good idea to help get rid of the sudden crime surge around Diagon Alley. Since she and Septimus had returned yesterday morning at least three different shops had been robbed by a growing number of criminals. Personally Audrey was rather sick of this and felt like something needed to be done about it. She would be absolutely thrilled at the opportunity.

"Like a neighborhood watch?" Russell smiled and nodded as Audrey paused for a moment to think. "I think it's a good idea, Russell. You can count me in; I'll ask around and see if anyone else is as tired of this mess as we are." Audrey replied leaning casually back in her chair, arms behind her head.

"Excellent, shouldn't take too long to get this idea of mine out there." Russell said as Septimus nodded in agreement on his right.

"I do hope you two know what you're getting yourselves into. I have a feeling you may be breaking a few laws." Septimus pointed out as he adjusted his cane before it fell over from where it was balanced on the arm of the couch next to his chair.

"Have you seen my criminal record from our wartime exploits. Septimus, I'm just waiting for a court date on my illegal broomstick enchantment." Said Audrey as Russell roared with laughter. "Trust me being known as a vigilante is much cooler than being known as the witch who enhanced muggle brooms with flight charms."

"Again Causey, you did it a few years ago too."

Audrey smirked, "I'm still not sure how they didn't catch me last time."

Oo0Oo0

**Author's Note: Okay, the stage is being set one prop at a time. I think this will be a bit drawn out, so enjoy the ride.**


	4. Caps

**Chapter Four: Caps**

_May _9th_ 1998_

A typical day in Diagon Alley where Audrey Causey made her home, the owls at the emporium down the street were settling down to sleep, the early shoppers were pouring out of the Leaky Cauldron. Just another normal day.

Throwing back the covers, leaping out of her comfortable bed and onto the cold wooden floors, Audrey realized she had misplaced her slippers. Those nice bunny slippers that were a Christmas gift from her friends her last year of school. Audrey sprung back into the warm bed and peered under the bed; she reached down and pulled out the pale pink bunny slippers she was looking for.

Slipping the slippers on her feet she walked out the door and down the hall and downstairs to the kitchen. The kitchen would have been pleasant if somebody came in to organize it once in a while, put away the canned goods, and sort out the potions for Septimus' growing list of ailments. Audrey pushed one for the early stages of arthritis down the counter looking for the pot of soup that was last night's supper.

Researchers really did not live a very glamorous lifestyle. Most of their money, if they were independent, went towards equipment and resources for what they were studying, unless they found something amazing, then they would be living off oatmeal and leftovers for a very long time. This was most likely the reason Septimus ran a bookshop while looking into the magical properties of the number seven and the origin of magic. He believed the two to be connected in some way. Audrey assisted mostly by translating old documents from old runic dialects for a little extra money and to see if there was anything that supported his theory. A person would be surprised by what they would find in those old pieces of parchment. Truthfully, it was not a very profitable existence, but it was always interesting.

Audrey put the soup back where she found it and realized she was not all that hungry for what she had had three bowls of the previous evening. Instead she grabbed a piece of fruit off the counter. Then placing her apple on the table and moving a stack of books off the chair and onto the floor. Taking a bit of her apple she began reading through a copy of the _Quibbler. _It was more honest than the _Prophet _at any rate, once you got past the Crumple-horned Snorkack thing. Besides, Audrey was still sure her picture was still in the war crimes section.

A couple hours later a fully dressed Audrey walked down a flight of stairs to the bottom floor where the shop was located. Audrey lived on the third floor with the extra rooms from the days the Septenary had been a boarding house. Septimus had the floor beneath her with the kitchen and his preferred sleeping space. The room and board came out of her small paycheck; she had thought of moving out if she ever got the money. But the idea had never stuck around for long. Audrey thoroughly enjoyed her work and the benefits outweighed the literal costs that would probably result from living on her own. Bottom line, Audrey had extremely cheap rent.

"Morning boss!" Audrey called coming downstairs.

Septimus stepped out of the workroom leaning on his cane looking extremely tired, and more irritable than usual. Audrey stepped back; unlike her Septimus was not a morning person, no matter how much sleep he got.

"Causey, it's too early to be chipper."

Audrey took on the solemn, miserable air of one attending a funeral. "Sorry sir."

Septimus chuckled. "Get to work you, the shop opens in ten minutes. I'll take the afternoon shift."

Audrey grinned then ran to the front door to open the shop. Today they were going to be opening their doors to the public again and Audrey was very excited. Everything was in place and ready for those few regular customers they had.

Oo0Oo0

"Oh, it is absolutely wonderful to see this place up and running again, Audrey. You and Mr. Lowell keep this place looking wonderful. Are you getting enough to eat girl? You're much too thin. When was the last time you had a nice warm meal?" An Italian woman chattered at the counter as Audrey looked over her purchases unable to get a word in edgewise. Mrs. Palmer was slightly deaf and tended to babble on a bit. "Really dear, if you ever need a bowl of soup don't hesitate to stop by my place for a bite. My youngest son Tony is hoping to take over my restaurant someday, bless him. And we it would be wonderful if you could stop by, really dear I quite enjoy talking with you.

"Anyway, as long as I'm here, would you all happen to have a book called '_The Magical Truth: A Study of the Great Merlin'? _My daughter-in-law, a muggleborn, has expressed an interest in famous wizarding figures since she and my son came out of hiding and told me what you and your friends did for them. They described it as something truly beyond the ordinary. They've both been quite shocked about everything going on around here since they came back from France. They've shown me pictures of some of the local landmarks, really, it's all quite lovely."

Mrs. Palmer leaned forward, "How in the world did you get all of those people away? It must have been so dangerous, it's a miracle all of you weren't killed. Back in my day people would've given heroics like that a large medal and a holiday, perhaps if somebody wrote a few letters to the Ministry or the _Daily Prophet_. Oh, look at the time; I need to get back to the shop before the lunch rush. I'll talk to you later Audrey." Mrs. Palmer scooped up her purchases and walked out the door.

"Wow, does she ever need to breathe?" Audrey asked Septimus in awe as he stepped out of his workroom.

"I'm not sure, maybe we should research that next." Septimus answered with a grin.

Audrey picked up her cue. "The oxygen need of chatterboxes? We may need a test subject."

Septimus laughed, leaning against the wall. Both were too engrossed with this inside joke to notice a small figure slip into the shop. A rather large wizard's hat hanging over its eyes, and dirty grey cloak over his shoulders, the child-sized figure took advantage of their distraction and snatched a book of the pedestal, and run out the door.

Both Audrey and Septimus looked up at the sound of the door slamming shut and a small yelp as the figure's to large cloak got caught in the door behind him, causing him to fall back on his behind and into the door. The door opened freeing the bit of clothing caught in the door, closing again as the child took off.

It took a moment to register.

"Thief! Stop thief!" Septimus yelled limping as fast as he could towards the door waving his cane around wildly as Audrey snatched up her wand and took off after the little thief.

"Hey! Stop right there you little brat!" Audrey yelled pushing her way through the crowds of people going to lunch. And managed to squeeze herself between a couple who were holding hands. They didn't look pleased. Audrey didn't think it would be this crowded for another couple of days. Just her luck. "Move it! I said out of the way!" She pushed her way past a tall man with red hair. Halfway down the alley she realized she was getting closer. Audrey reached forward, the tips of her fingers brushed the cloaks lining. Then she tripped and crashed into a fruit stand.

"Ouch…" Audrey looked up to see the kid leap into a self-pushing fruit cart no less than ten feet away and take off down the street towards Knockturn alley. "Bloody kid…" Audrey picked herself up and ran down an opening between a couple of shops. Audrey had a feeling she knew where he was going. She knew the twists and turns better than most other people. She knew the shortcuts, and she was going to use them. All's fair in a game of cat and mouse after all.

Oo0Oo0

The boy leaped out of the cart at the entrance to Knockturn Alley, not far from where he had snatched the cart. That was too easy. He picked up a few pieces of fruit out of the cart, put them in a pocket in his cloak and walked down Knockturn Alley taking large greedy bites of an apple as he did so. Audrey couldn't help but notice how thin he was as she followed.

Audrey kept her distance yet remained close enough to keep the child in sight, and rested her hand on her wand nervously. Being in Knockturn alley gave her the creeps. It was quite easy to see why it would.

He cut through small spaces between the shops, making sudden sharp turns, and knocking shrunken heads away with a stick he had found on the ground. The boy reached his destination, a pile of crates behind a shop called No Speaking; he knocked on the back door and slipped the book through the cellar window. Sitting down on the crates behind him, he waited to be paid. Audrey believed it was the smug look on his face that made her react the way she did.

"Got you, you little brat!" Audrey yelled running forward and putting the boy in a headlock. "You stole something from my shop and I want it back!"

"Forget it you psycho! It's outta my hands now, now let me go!" The kid yelled trying to struggle out of Audrey's grip.

Audrey laughed, for a moment it sounded completely insane. Well, the boy already thought she was a psycho anyway. Why not play along? "Forget it? Forget it! No, you owe me now considering I was nice and clean when this chase started and getting the grime out of my robes is not gonna come cheap. And let's not forget about the book you disposed of, that particular book was really quite expensive."

"Yeah, that explains what I'm getting paid for it!" The boy continued struggling as Audrey led him back to the main street still in a headlock. "Somebody help! I'm being kidnapped!"

"Well, I guess you'll be paying me and the old man back then won't you? If I recall, that book was worth about a hundred Galleons. And you're not being kidnapped?"

He started struggling again effectively knocking them both into a puddle. The boy leapt up to make a run for it but Audrey wrestled him back to the ground. Dragging him up by the back of his shirt and placing him back into the headlock she continued pulling him out towards the main street. The boy stopped struggling for a moment. "The guy I stole it for said it was only worth about twenty Galleons and six Sickles… I'll get him for this. He said he was going to give me fifteen percent."

Audrey snorted; scams like this were becoming increasingly common since the war ended. People will do anything for a little money. Audrey dragged him back to the Septenary attracting many strange stares as she went. She felt her face flush. Audrey did not like to be stared at. She didn't like being the center of attention. It made her feel queasy.

"Hey, Causey what in the hell are you doing?" a man asked from his shop steps as he ate lunch. "You're all wet!"

Audrey stopped, "I caught a thief Mr. Parish. Despite anything else he says." They boy was still yelling for help and trying to get out of Audrey's headlock, Audrey rolled her eyes, grabbed his ear with her thumb and forefinger, and twisted. The boy just yelped loudly. "See you around. C'mon you little monster."

"Like I have a choice!" the boy yelled as Audrey continued marching him towards the shop.

The kid was still complaining as Audrey dragged him into the Septenary, for a proper discussion about paying off his debt to the store. It was going to be messy. Septimus was, of course, not going to be happy about being robbed and was most likely going to have to be talked down for a bargain to be reached. Audrey still had the boy in a very tight headlock as Septimus limped out of the back room. Angry did not sound like a strong enough word to describe the look on his face. Audrey couldn't think of one right now, but it would come eventually.

"Alright you little delinquent, who are you? Where are you from? And where are your parents?" Septimus crossed his arms in front of his chest, his feet planted firmly on the ground, his thick eyebrows creasing together angrily. "And where is the book?"

'_Vexed, maybe?'_

"I don't have to answer you." The boy sneered continuing to fight his way out of the headlock.

'_Fiery perhaps?' _

"Really now, well, maybe I'll have to get the local law enforcement involved. Get you taken to some nice little orphan- _Cappie_?" The boy stopped trying to reach the large hat that had chosen that exact moment to fall off his head and onto the floor. Audrey finally released the child from the headlock and stepped back.

"Wait, you're telling me I just dragged Martin Garland's son out of Knockturn Alley! Well, this is one way to end my day!" Audrey exclaimed crossing her arms and giving Cappie a very stern glare. "I know his parents raised him to be better that a common thief. Let alone to go into Knockturn Alley."

Septimus raised his eyebrows as he took a good look at the boy. He seemed softer somehow when he asked his next question, "What happened to your Godfather, boy?"

The boy stared at the ground, his fists clenched at his sides. That seemed to tell Septimus everything he needed to know.

"Can't send him off now, I told Martin and Adamina I would tell Edmund to take care him if something happened to them. Seeing as that's not going to happen…" Septimus muttered still looking rather furious. "I can't exactly throw him out either… Cappie, you'll being on the third floor with Audrey. Audrey, take him to that room across from yours, he will stay with us for now and work off his debt until I decide what to do with him." Septimus inhaled and promptly covered his nose. "And take a shower, both of you. I have no idea what you've been into but it reeks!"

Audrey led Cappie to the staircase, and finally remembered something. "Wrathful! That's the word!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing, it's nice to meet you, Cappie."

Cappie rolled his eyes as he followed Audrey upstairs.

Oo0Oo0

"Okay, new sheets and there's a quilt in the closet in case you need it tonight which I doubt. The kitchen's downstairs please don't touch the mess; I won't be able to find anything later." Audrey said as she gave Cappie a small smile. The boy just scowled.

"I won't be here long, I can leave anytime."

"You won't. I doubt you have anywhere else to be. I also don't think you'll want to give up the warm bed."

Cappie's scowl deepened, "What do you know?"

"Far too much." Audrey tucked the ends of the sheet under the mattress. "Your parents talked about you a lot. Your dad said you collected some funny looking caps."

Audrey thought she saw Cappie smile before he wandered out of the room.

'_Maybe he'll finish off the soup…'_ Audrey inhaled deeply. She cringed; the stench coming off her robes was disgusting. _'I think I'll take a shower before I eat lunch.'_


	5. Lucia

I do not own Harry Potter. If I did, I would not be writing this.

**Chapter Five: Lucia**

_May 10__th__ 1998_

"Well, Miss Selwyn, it appears you are all set and free to go. Now, if things get worse please don't hesitate to come back." The assistant Healer said calmly checking the chart and chewing on her quill. "Obviously, we're open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Need some help Miss Selwyn?"

The young woman shook her head in response as she raised herself from the hospital bed, "No, I'm alright, just tell me how to get out of here and I'll be on my way."

"Are you sure Miss Selwyn? Wouldn't you like to wait for your parents?" The healer asked looking up from her charts in time to catch the young woman's eyes flash dangerously in anger. "It's dangerous to go anywhere alone."

"What parents? In case you haven't noticed you've barred the only people who wanted to see me from visiting because they didn't decide to have a go a pretty little heiress."

The assistant healer stepped back as if to avoid the spewing venom from her patient's lips. "These are uncertain times, Miss; really, the only people you can trust are your family."

"Iacomus and Clarita Selwyn are not my family." Lucia paused, and snorted in distain. "They're my _handlers_ and we want nothing more to do with each other."

Always telling her what to do, always telling her what was best for her, and what was best for the ancient name of Selwyn. Always bringing home men of respectable linage since she was sixteen to try and marry her off to a good family so that she would become a respectable woman in the eyes of pureblood society. Lucia found nothing respectable in becoming someone whose only job was to supply her husband with a male heir to uphold the family name and fortune. She had seen the results of that, the woman was second to the man of the house, and if he died while they had a young boy in the house the woman would watch the fortune until the son came of age.

And they said being a pureblood was so great. Lucia Selwyn was no fool; she saw the sexism and those old fashioned social rules that held back the women of her family for generations. It was disgusting. And she refused to be a part of it any longer.

Before she had ran away from home to help get muggleborns out of the country her parents had arranged a marriage with a suitable man twice her age for her to marry. He was not a close relative, he was rich, and he was balding. Lucia wasn't sure whether it was the age difference or that bloody nonexistent hairline that turned her off more. No, actually there was something else. He never looked at her face; he kept his eyes trained on her breasts. It was almost like the man had been locked up for twenty years. Wait, he had been in prison for a few years for passing on information to Voldemort supporters. No wonder her parents liked him.

The whole process of breaking out of her home was so very simple. Lucia had managed to sneak out on the night of her wedding after asking the women assisting her to leave her alone for a few minutes before she walked down the aisle. They were too happy to oblige. Lucia had then grabbed the bag and the broom she had stuffed under the bed and leapt out the fourth story window. Her friend Audrey Causey was extremely surprised to see her at the Garlands home in completely over the top wedding robes.

Oo0Oo0

"I haven't paid off my debt _yet_?"

"Cappie, one day of work does not pay off a hundred Galleon book." Audrey answered from where she was sitting in front of the hearth translating a document for Septimus. "Besides, Lucia is finally getting out of St. Mungo's today; I personally want the floor so clean we can eat off of it."

Cappie rolled his eyes and continued to sweep the floors scowling like he had been since his arrival. Audrey could understand why he was so upset; both of his parents had died during the war effort to remove muggleborns from the reach of the new regime. Both they and another member of the scheme, Nolan Odell, had died when the house they were hiding in was attacked by Death Eaters; Lucia came away from the wreckage having suffered minor burns. Cappie's parents, from what she understood, had left him in the care of his godfather. Cappie had run off after his death and had resorted to thievery, which had gotten him indebted to the bookshop.

"So, do you know when my niece is arriving?" Septimus asked as he walked through the front door of the shop carrying a bag of groceries. "I haven't seen her since her since before the end of the war."

"That's only because they wouldn't let us in to visit. Immediate family only remember? Like her parents would be coming to visit." Audrey replied with a roll of her eyes. "They disowned her when we were in court-"

"-Because she was saving muggleborns and associating with you and me behind their backs for years," Septimus replied setting the groceries on the empty chair next to Audrey. "I know why they wouldn't like her associating with me, I got blasted off the family tree after I left, and I would have been a bad influence. But I don't understand why they wouldn't like you, you're a good kid."

"Septimus, do I have to remind you I'm a muggleborn?" Audrey said, pulling her wand out of the sleeve of her robes and pointing it at the older man. "That was a good try Russell. Now how in the hell did you get Septimus' hair?"

"Long story, it's this year's Halloween costume; I wanted to try it out and perfect my impersonation. I asked him for permission and I received it. So, how'd you know it was me?" Russell asked as the Polyjuice potion began to change him back. "I had Mrs. Palmer fooled over at the restaurant, though she did seem a bit suspicious when I paid her upfront instead of putting it on the old guy's tab."

"Mrs. Palmer doesn't see much beyond her own nose, and she probably likes the idea of getting some money from Septimus enough not to question it. And besides, Septimus knows my blood-status." Audrey answered putting her wand away, and setting her papers aside. "Also Septimus didn't go out to get groceries; he went out to the Leaky Cauldron for a firewhiskey.

Cappie laughed at the astonished look on Russell's face. "It's true sir."

"I should've known better." Said Russell as he leaned lazily on the back of the chair with the bags in it, "Anyway the stuff in the bags is for you lot."

Russell gave a low chuckle as Audrey peered into the grocery bags. "Oh, this is all stuff from your shop! Is this for us?" Audrey asked holding up a box up chocolate frogs. Russell nodded as Audrey tossed a couple to Cappie who caught them in his hat. "Thank you, Russell."

"Thank you… I'll eat these later," Cappie muttered putting the chocolates in the pockets of his robes, "After I've finished with the floors."

Russell laughed, heartily clapping Cappie on the shoulder as he walked towards the shop door. "That was fun; I'll talk to you later, Audrey!" He called over his shoulder as he strode out the door.

"Bye Russell!" Audrey called as the door closed. She turned to face the boy who had gone back to sweeping the floors, "you know I could use a break from all of these translations, you want some help?" Cappie nodded eagerly. Audrey grabbed an extra broom out of Septimus' office and began sweeping the floor. She found the whole process relaxing, the fact that it kept her away from the paperwork made it all the more pleasant.

Half an hour later, Audrey and Cappie were both finishing up the cleaning of the shop, when the door flew open revealing the handsome, and somewhat tired, face of John Townsend. A baby carrier in one hand and a bag, which Audrey correctly assumed to be a baby bag in the other. John put the bag on the couch and propped the baby carrier on the counter.

Audrey couldn't help but notice how tired John looked up close; this was a lively, energetic, fun-loving guy, who looked more like an Inferi then anything else. It was scarier in the fact that John had been close to tireless when they were relocating those other muggleborns during the war. A truly inspiring sight, Audrey had always thought.

"Audrey," John said slowly, leaning against the counter as he spoke, "I need a small favor."

"What is it John?" Audrey asked as Junior gave a small cry from the carrier.

"I need a babysitter. Hear me out, Aud; I need some time with Ellie." Audrey tilted her head. John had been spending all of his free time with Ellie and Junior since he had come home.

"Aren't you and Ellie living in that flat above her bakery? You're home for lunch every day; don't you even see her around your own home?"

John put his face in his hands, "You're completely missing the point. It's a _one _bedroom flat Audrey. I don't want to scar Junior like my parents scared me. My childhood home had very _thin_ walls and I heard _everything_."

Cappie looked over his eyebrows disappearing under his shaggy black hair.

Audrey looked confused until she realized what he was talking about. Her face immediately turned bright pink as she realized what he was saying. "Huh? Oh. _Oh!_" John nodded slowly, as Junior's arm flailed up from the carrier. "C-can't you use a – a silencing charm or - no wait, I'm not going to say anything, I'm not going to ask! You want me to watch him don't you?"

"Yes, please!"

"Alright, when do want to drop him off?" Audrey asked as she looked at the sleeping Junior. "Aw, you're a good baby aren't you?"

"Now would be good, hopefully he'll sleep for the next couple of hours. Everything you might need is in the bag," John practically danced to the shop door. "Be good Junior, Audrey I'll see you around three." John seemed to run at an almost supersonic speed towards the bakery at the other end of Diagon Alley.

"What was that all about?" Cappie asked as he swept up the dirt that John had tracked inside the shop.

Audrey looked over at the child, "I'm not telling you. Ask another question."

"Ah, so how have John and Ellie been married?"

"Um, well, they were married about two weeks before the government fell. When the government fell, people in power started rounding up muggleborns like us for questioning." Cappie stopped sweeping and looked at Audrey, eyes wide. "Septimus and I talked John into going into hiding and helping us relocate those people at risk with us and I guess he left Ellie pregnant. Next time we saw her she was holding Junior here and telling him he had fathered a child," Audrey started to giggle at this point, "John fainted dead away on the floor of the Ministry of Magic." Cappie stared as Audrey started laughing harder. "Then Septimus pulls out the bottle of firewhiskey that was taken from John's office. John had been trying to hide it from him and…" Audrey was unable to continue, she was laughing too hard. It all sounded slightly ridicules now.

"Hey, I only asked how long they were married, you know."

"Yes, but I like telling stories."

They both went about their work in silence for the next hour as Junior slept. Well, Audrey did in any case; Cappie had plucked a book off a shelf for something to do. Both were interrupted once again by the sound of a door opening.

There was a young woman standing in the doorway clad in pale violet robes. Her long blonde hair hanging loosely past her shoulders, wide green eyes and high cheekbones gave her a very serious looking beauty one would expect to find in a large business corperation.

She didn't appear to be a regular customer, seeing as the moment Lucia Selwyn stepped through the door Audrey leaped up from the chair she was sitting in and pulled the young woman into a tight hug. Both began talking excitedly about what the other had been up to since they had last seen each other. This commotion had woken Junior from his nap and he was now screaming loudly in discontent. Cappie was now dangling a toy in front of him trying to silence him. It wasn't working.

"Hey Audrey and friend," Cappie said sounding on the edge of panic, "Junior's crying, I could use some help here!"

Audrey gave Lucia a pleading look. Lucia stared at the wall ahead of her, her brows furrowed. Audrey tapped her on the shoulder, snapping Lucia out of her daze.

"What? Don't look at me Audrey; I don't know a thing about babies. Only child, remember?" Lucia pointed out calmly as Junior screamed louder. Cappie placed the toy on the counter and ran towards the books about charm work.

"Yeah, I'm an only child too!" Audrey said rushing over to the baby bag, (which she had just realized was covered in pictures of woodland rabbits), snatched up a bottle of baby formula, and tried to tempt the baby into eating. "Raised by my grandparents, you on the other hand were raised by two parents."

Lucia rolled her eyes, "My parents had an extremely hands off approach. They also promptly disowned me for working against the government with my muggleborn best friend and my blood-traitor uncle! Honestly Audrey, my parents were going to use me as a tool to raise their own standing. I've told you before, that's how pureblood society works; marry for wealth, power, and respectability. And one child, two if you're feeling rebellious, to carry on the family name and all that other good stuff." Lucia ranted crossing her arms and tapping a foot on the wood floor, as Audrey continued to try and stop Junior from crying and not succeeding. "I chose you, John, Ellie, Uncle Septimus, and everybody else over what my parents consider a respectable life. Best decision I ever made."

"You don't have any regrets then…" Audrey asked softly, as Junior finally settled down. "About helping us?"

"None, we saved a lot of people," Lucia smirked, "I'll never forget the look on old man Braxton's face when you told him he was going to France in a crate. The words he used to describe his displeasure was everything I ever wanted to tell my parents when they brought potential husbands over for dinner."

"You were going to stuff a guy in a crate! What'd he say?" Cappie asked coming out from behind the bookshelf he had been hiding behind while Junior wailed.

"I'll tell you when you're older. And I was joking around with the old guy." Audrey replied quickly, putting a wide awake Junior back in the carrier. "Did you eat those chocolate frogs yet? I've heard they have some new cards out."

Cappie leaped whipped the box out of his pocket excitedly, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He ripped the box open, popping the frog in his mouth and looking at the card. "Hey, you were right Audrey. Check this out!"

"Who's on the card, Caps?" Audrey asked peering over the boy's shoulder.

"Harry Potter!"

Junior began to scream again.

Oo0Oo0

Septimus Lowell staggered back into the Septenary around three in the afternoon. A man could only lose so many hands of cards before he had to leave to save what was left of his pride. The shop was normally very quiet under Audrey's watchful eyes.

He had failed to see the baby carrier resting quietly by a frazzled looking Audrey's feet. Septimus may have said his slightly intoxicated greetings to loudly resulting in three loud _"shush!"_ sounds from the three occupants. Septimus staggered backwards in shock. His eyes then drifted down towards the baby carrier by Audrey's feet.

Septimus blinked, "Audrey is there something you need to tell me?"

"I'm babysitting, he just stopped screaming. I want to keep it that way." Audrey whispered as she eyeballed Junior nervously as if she took her eyes off of him for a second he would start screaming again.

Lucia looked up at her uncle and smiled sweetly. "Audrey said John and Ellie wanted some _alone time_ and didn't want to scar the child." The young woman sighed dramatically, "Well, at least someone around here is getting some action."

"What kind of action?" Cappie asked from where he was sitting on the couch. Audrey promptly buried her face in a pillow while Lucia roared with laughter. Septimus walked right back out the door to take a walk, barely acknowledging John as he walked into the shop to pick up his son.

Oo0Oo0

_**Author's note: Ah, babysitting. Yes, I know this chapter is short and not much is going on here, but Lucia is some form of comic relief. **_

_**Yes, I know this chapter isn't really up to par. But, I did start writing this story last summer and I'm editing some before I post the chapters here. I've got about sixteen chapters on the computer at the moment. And if you want my honest opinion, I've gotten better as time went on. **_

_**I ACCEPT ANONYMOUS REVIEWS! **_


	6. Pub Brawls

**Chapter Six: Pub Brawls**

_May 13__th__ 1998_

"Hey, Septimus, I'm taking off for the evening," Audrey called from the front door of the shop, as her boss flipped through books about theories about the origin of magical power, Cappie drawing something at his feet. Septimus had been branching off into uncharted territory for years now. It was not going to be pretty if he actually discovered an origin, Audrey thought, few would believe a rouge researcher, not backed by government or the research society funding.

"Where are you and everyone else meeting up this time?" Septimus asked, not even looking up from his papers. "I don't want to walk in on any cult-like rituals like I did last summer."

"That was my initiation ceremony, not a cult ritual!" Audrey exclaimed, her face turning pink. Being initiated into the Under Paid Employees of Diagon Alley (UPEDA) was an embarrassing affair involving large jars of honey, chicken feathers, and a ring of fire. "But if you must know everybody's meeting up at the Sneezing Snitch for a couple hands of cards."

Septimus looked up from his papers for the first time in three hours, his thick eyebrows seeming to knit together in confusion. "So the Scully boy's back? I thought he was dead." Audrey gave him nasty look.

"He was in the shop earlier."

"Probably when I went upstairs to look for that _Prophet._"

"Who Lucia?" Cappie added with a laugh.

"Very funny, just because she predicted the date Quidditch would start this year does not make Lucia a prophet of any sort." Septimus crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"I don't know Boss, we used to place bets on the matches when we were in school. We won all but one time, and that was when Hufflepuff beat Ravenclaw 300 to 150. That was embarrassing." Audrey added under her breath.

Septimus laughed loudly, "I remember Lucia telling me about that. Boy she was hopping mad, not only had she lost about twelve galleons, but she was still recovering from a head cold she got a week before the match."

Oo0Oo0

Audrey loved evenings like this, the cool evening air and the heavy mist about her ankles as she walked silently through Diagon Alley. Not a soul in sight really, unless you counted the local ghosts. Most of them were pretty harmless. The only ones you really had to worry about were the ones who had some reason to be vengeful. Luckily, Diagon didn't have many of those, as far as Audrey knew.

She stopped outside a small old fashioned pub with a broken sign hanging over the entrance. The sign looked like a good wind would drop it onto the head of an unsuspecting passerby; the Sneezing Snitch had never really been able to keep up its outer appearance before the war and had always looked rather run down. Now the place looked like it had been almost destroyed by those people who had turned it into living quarters for the Wandless during the war.

Ignoring the shrieking curses of a shrunken head on the wall, Audrey walked inside the pub. The inside was cleaner than she had expected. All of the tables were upright and in one piece, the counter top was polished to a shine, and there were groups of customers sitting around talking (or singing in some cases) happily while Scully's new pianist played in the corner by the fireplace. There were more customers then Audrey had expected.

Turning around to take in the rebuilding efforts that had become so common lately, her gaze was drawn to the burned paintings on the wall and seeing the usual occupants crowded in one painting. Much the enjoyment of those evenings' customers, scantily clad drunken women were crowded around Scully's father, the original owner of the pub. Audrey joined the laughter as the painting's occupants tripped and stumbled over one another after trying to find a place to drink without stepping on someone else's toes.

"Gerroff Betsy!" The man shouted, trying to push one of the women off his lap as she smiled drunkenly. "Have some dignity woman! And Marcy STAY OUTTA MY KEGS!"

"These ain't your kegs; I brought these from my painting!" The tall woman named Marcy replied as she refilled her goblet.

The older man snorted irritability as his eyes swept around the room and noticed Audrey giggling madly at the paintings antics. "If you're looking for my useless son he's in the private room." The older man's gaze swept towards the crowd still watching the painting, "And what are you looking at!" The crowd silenced immediately and went back to their drinks.

From what Audrey knew, Norbert Scully was an absolutely fearsome man when he was alive, ruling his pub and his family with an iron fist. He didn't let any brawl get out of hand; he took care to make sure any damages were paid in full by the offenders, especially after the infamous destruction of his wine collection from the 1830's. Norbert Scully was still remembered for his street duel with the man who did it, considering Norbert Scully went to Azkaban for it and came out a year later still angry about his wine really said a lot for his life as a whole.

With a small "Thanks," to the painting Audrey walked to the private room where they were going to be meeting tonight. Personally, Audrey wanted to see if see could win a bit of money tonight for her personal fund for clothes or something. She was paid in room and board, and a few galleons depending on how business was that week. She really needed another job, one that paid better at any rate. Maybe she could join the Ministry or something, become someone's secretary maybe? No, that would probably not work out for numerous reasons. The main reason being because she did not trust those people in power, especially after this last year.

Scully was tending the fireplace when Audrey walked in, the young woman grinned mischievously as she closed the door loudly behind her. The man tending the fireplace fell backwards away from the fire shocked out of his trance. He leaped up, trying to preserve some measure of dignity, waved his wand making a couple of chairs pull away from the table so they could sit down. "Why do you insist on doing that when my back is turned?"

"The reaction is kind of amusing." Audrey said as she sat down, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes and looking around the room, "No one else here yet?"

"You should be used to that Causey, you're always early." Scully scoffed, as he sat at the other end of the table, "We've got about ten minutes."

"I thought I told John to come early for a hand of cards," Audrey muttered, though it didn't escape Scully's ears.

"You did, I was there when you told him this afternoon. Ellie and the baby have him whipped, did you think about that?"

A look of realization crossed Audrey's face. "To be honest Scully, I really didn't. Somehow, after being on the run for a year, I just thought things would go back to how they were before we left, I never expected this mess."

Scully smiled grimly, propping his elbow on the table and leaning forward. "To be honest, Audrey, none of us expected a war two years ago, nobody saw the attempted muggleborn genocide, and nobody saw the take down of You-know-who at a damn _school _either! Don't forget what happened to you or anybody else in this madness." Scully's smile disappeared by this point. "I overheard some interesting rumors on my way into the Alley this morning and again this evening in my own pub. I hear we have a few war heroes in our own alley."

Audrey squirmed uncomfortably in her chair.

"One of our own assistant shop-keepers, who I always thought was more-likely to spend time in that bookshop she works in, or doing research for her crazy boss. I've always held this girl in high regard because she talks sense, is smart enough to be truly formidable in dangerous situations, and may be level-headed enough to remain formidable when things get bad." Scully leaned back in his chair and smiled grimly. "I suspect you led people to safety while you were in hiding, though I'm working off bits of inconsistent information from a bunch of drunks so I could be wrong."

"You do have the right idea, Scully, though I'm not a leader." Audrey said softly, her face flushed, "I just did what Septimus told me to."

"Really now? What about when he got himself arrested? You couldn't listen to him and follow his orders then."

"That was different! It was just John, and Lucia, and me, we had to get away. Lucia was hurt, John got paranoid, which probably kept us alive, and I was trying to keep us together." Audrey's hands shook, feeling like she was being interrogated by a Ministry official, not a barman who was hosting this get together.

Scully opened his mouth to respond when he was interrupted by cat-calls and a string of swear words that would make a sailor cringe, coming from the main room of the bar. A young woman who sounded like she was on the receiving end of the cat-calls was responding with some terms that Audrey turned a brighter shade of pink to hear. The sound got louder as the door swung open and John Townsend stepped through dragging Lucia and Russell in behind him. Lucia was trying to break out of both of the men's holds on her wrists, and failing miserably.

"Pigs," Lucia stated firmly as her companions finally let her go. "Really Scully your customers act like they've never seen a woman before. I'm not going to tell you half the stuff they said, or any of it for that matter. But I'm not sure a body can bend in those directions."

"Lucia…" John muttered in a warning tone, his face red.

Lucia perked up a bit, looking mischievous. "So you're going to confirm the full capabilities of the human body?"

John turned a deeper shade of red as the room echoed in loud, disturbed shouts of "Lucia!"

Russell stepped away from Lucia as if he would start to be tainted by association, and took the empty seat next to Audrey. Russell gave her a bright smile and watched John try and explain to Lucia about the meaning of privacy between a husband and wife. Scully just rubbed his eyes and stared at Audrey and Russell.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear any of that…" Scully said slowly as the two other people continued talking. "So, Russell, how's business?"

"Couldn't be better, I'm still getting orders for You-Know-Who is You-No-More parties all over London. It's been fantastic!" Russell exclaimed looking incredibly eager about his success. "This constant state of euphoria has been wonderful for business, but it may have blinded people to other problems right under our noses. Take the sudden increase in scams, and thievery, these people have something to get past anti-theft charms on our shops. Any thoughts Scully? I've been robbed of chocolate frogs' every day since I came back last week."

Audrey looked up at the man sitting next to her who now had the attention of the entire room on him, seeming perfectly relaxed. Audrey wasn't one for that kind of attention that Russell seemed to bask in. She enjoyed working behind the scenes a lot more.

Scully snorted, "Ask somebody else with less able charms than mine, I made myself scarce during the war and only left the young stuff behind. I had Wandless people in here who destroyed the place somehow but they never got into my store room. I had a reverse age line around it as well as my best anti-theft charms, ask somebody who actually got robbed." Scully chuckled as Audrey slipped down in her chair a bit.

"Oh, you mean Audrey," Russell said, looking down at the top of Audrey's head.

"Be quiet you." Audrey muttered from her position before straightening herself up. "It could've happened to anyone. Ask John what happened to that shop next to Ellie's."

Everyone in the room shifted their gaze in John's direction. "Thank you for that Audrey, really, thanks," John said sarcastically, cutting his explanation to Lucia short. "Our nieghbor's shop got robbed yesterday evening. The person who did it took quite a few of his goods, but the important thing is that everone's alright."

"It's good that everyone in okay, but my point is being proven," Russell said rising to his feet and pacing around the room like an elderly statesman. "This is why we need to take action. What exactly has the government done for us the past few years? Lied. Taken no action against threats from powerful evil forces, good people have died because those bureaucrats were hiding from the truth. To them the world was as sweet as a new chocolate frog card, but they couldn't see the reality. They can't see it now either. We need to take care of the problem ourselves." Russell stopped pacing and faced his audience. "This is my proposal; we go out and find information about our local pests. If anybody out there knows anything they'll be more likely to talk when they're not completely sober. So, do you want in or not?"

Audrey didn't need to think about it. She stood up first and said two words, "I'm in." John and Lucia grinned and took a step forward, following Audrey's lead.

Scully just stared at Russell for a moment, his eyes locked with his before he opened his mouth to respond. "Russell, you're my best mate, and I enjoy every scheme you come up with no matter how far-fetched and strange it may be. Do I really have to give you an answer?"

Audrey suspected that Russell was about to respond with some well placed smart remark when the sound of shouts, spells, and breaking glass stopped the conversation short.

"Damn drunks!" Scully shouted as he leaped out of his chair and into the pub whipping his wand out of his pocket.

She only got to take in the scene before her for only a couple of seconds before Audrey got into a duel with a large muscled man wielding a chair leg over his head. _'Yeah, you're not that scary. Left your wand on a table somewhere I bet.' _Audrey sprung out of the way and watched the chair leg hit the spot where she had been moments before. She lost her balance and fell backwards, her open hands landing on bits of glass. _'Confundo!' _Audrey yelled inside her head, ignoring her injuries as she pointed her wand at the man. Her already great affection for non-verbal spells increased dramatically as the man began to stagger, his face pale as he leaned over a table and threw up.

Audrey turned around looking for her next opponent as bottles of firewhiskey flew through the air. She saw John and Russell dueling against a tough looking woman with one eye, Lucia knocking some poor bloke in the gut with a brutal looking hex that caused blisters to appear over all the visible parts of his body, Scully had taken a defensive position behind the counter and kept popping up from behind it to shoot spells into the crowd. A few other visitors were throwing their mugs of whiskey at a small mob who were hexing each other while the piano player changed his song to a very fast, foot-tapping tune.

Glancing around as she took a position behind a table that had been knocked on its side to hit her next opponent by surprise. After Audrey had petrified a couple of wrestling men she peered over the table edge again to see a strange and extremely disturbing sight. It was one of the redheaded men from the Wheeze, the neighboring shop to the Septenary, swaggering through the chaos with the delirious smile of a drunken fool plastered across his face. None of the spells were hitting him as he ambled through the pub, all of the spells just bounced off like he had some type of protection charm that could be used without a wand. Lucky guy. Audrey wished she could say the same for his taller companion; the man almost lost his glasses and came close to having his red hair lit on fire by a stray hex. Audrey thought the second man looked extremely familiar as he grabbed hold of the first man and took off out of the pub.

Audrey realized she'd have to try to remember where she saw the man later, as a flash of bright light almost removed her head from her shoulders. Ducking down behind the table once again and peering out her wand level with someone's knee. Audrey stunned them and took off into the fray to watch Lucia's back after a curse almost took her nose off.

"Take that you drunken swine!" Lucia shouted as one of her jinxes set the hem of two men's robes on fire. Her bright green eyes looked over at Audrey who was standing beside her. "Good evening for it, isn't it?"

"You bet!" Audrey replied, as they backed against the wall. "Really, I can't remember a nicer evening for a pub brawl." She sent a neat tickling charm at a man trying to fend off John with badly aimed jinx that kept missing its target and knocking down the wine behind the bar, much to Scully's displeasure. The effect of Audrey's charm brought the man to his knees in a laughing fit, causing him to send his spell into the wine behind the bar again and effectively knocking the rack over this time.

Scully swore as he scarcely missed being crushed by his own bottles. He struggled up from behind the bar wielding his wand and brandishing a poker stick from the fireplace screaming, "Someone's got to pay for those!" Audrey attempted to look like she was clueless as to how the rack came down as she went back to trying to throw out the rowdy customers. John just glanced over in Audrey's direction and let out a barking laugh before he turned to his new duel.

"Only if he finds out who," Lucia muttered sending the laughing man out the door with an almost lazy flick of her wand, then turning her back to Audrey to send another one out the door backwards into the gathering crowd outside. The rest of the brawlers soon followed suit.

Audrey took in the empty bar and the mess around the room. Over-turned chairs and tables littered the room as well as broken bottles and glasses as well as their contents. It was not going to take long to clean up this mess.

"Everyone alright?" Scully asked coming out from behind the bar, leaving his fire poker and locking the door with a wave of his wand. Audrey couldn't help but notice he was limping a bit on his left leg.

Russell crawled out from under some tables he had been buried under and waved to show his friend he was alright. John was showing a blackened eye and tears in his shirt. Lucia's nose seemed to be a bit burned on the tip. And Audrey was sporting some cuts on the palms of her hands, and her clothes were torn in several places.

"I think we're all okay," John said touching his eye gently. "Battered and bruised but that's to be expected. Hey, Scully, mind if I have a look at that leg?"

Scully sat down on one of the few chair's still in one piece and rolled up his pants leg. "Hurts like hell it does, one of those idiots hit me with some kinda spell on my way out here."

John took out his wand and pointed it at the injured leg. "I got hit with this before, it's not pleasant, but I can fix it. Hold still for a minute."

In that moment, Audrey was reminded of John's healing ambitions. He wanted to get a job so he could put some money away before he applied to the training program; John's fantastic grades earned him a job in the Ministry in the Department of Trade Regulations where he was now working to support his family. Audrey took in a breath, John was talented, and he had proven that on a number of occasions during the relocation efforts, but his dream looked like it was going to be put on hold for a while.

"That feels much better, thank you John." Scully said standing up resting his weight on his newly healed leg. "That feels good."

"Anytime, right then, who's next?" John asked standing up and looking at his friends. As Audrey stepped forward so John could have a look at her hands she realized she never got that card game she came for.

The pianist continued to play as if nothing had happened, brawls like this happened often in the Sneezing Snitch.


	7. John, the Father, and Complete Serenity

I do not own Harry Potter. This story is just a product of my imagination inspired by J.K. Rowling's work.

**Chapter Seven: John, the Father, and Complete Serenity **

_May 14__th__ 1998_

"What do you mean by 'Your vault has been seized.'?" Audrey asked quietly leaning over the counter at Gringotts to speak more quietly to the goblin banker.

"It is unable to be used by you, or anybody else until further notice is what it means, Miss Causey. It's the same with all the other muggle-borns who disappeared during your war. Now since you have no more business here for the time being-"

"Really, are those vault snatchings still going on?" Cappie asked as he made such a sudden appearance at Audrey's side it could've been Apparation and looking up at the goblin with interest, "Shouldn't the vaults have gone back to their rightful owners after the war?"

The goblin gave and indignant snort as he began to flip through the papers before him. "The vaults and their contents are in the process of being returned. Yours should be cleared within the next six months-"

It was Audrey who interrupted this time. "Six months!" She may have said this a bit louder than was necessary seeing as almost everybody in the bank paused and looked over in her direction. Audrey turned a pale pink as she lowered her voice, "C'mon Raguk, six months?"

Raguk played with the golden scales sitting on his desk for a moment watching them tilt with the weight of the gold he would at to it. He wrote down the weight, removed the gold and repeated the process. Raguk soon stopped and looked up at his clients. "Look Miss Causey- Audrey- I can't do much about the wait." Raguk paused and scratched the end of his long nose. "I'm sorry."

Audrey heaved a deep sigh. "It's okay, really. I didn't have enough money in that vault to make much difference in my lifestyle to begin with. I've gotta get back to the shop. Care to keep me posted Raguk?"

"I'll let you know if you mysteriously get bumped up the ladder Miss Causey. Have a nice day." Raguk replied reassuming his professional air as he waved the pair away so he could return to work.

Cappie and Audrey walked through the grand doors that lead out to the bustling streets. The crowds were now larger and mere celebratory as more people began to realize the war was finally over. Audrey saw children running through the streets, their parents following to the best of their ability, most of the stands and shops had opened again, and she also caught glimpses of couples slinking off for a snog in the middle of window shopping.

"World's pickin' up again," Cappie remarked as stuck to Audrey's side like a burr to avoid getting lost, "ain't it?"

Audrey nodded in agreement as she squeezed through the crowd, "You bet, maybe things will finally get back to normal around here."

The boy stopped for a moment, "Audrey, I don't think things will ever be back to normal… We lost normal a long time ago."

_'You twit, Cappie lost his parents in this. You saw them die yourself; his life will never go back to normal!'_ The rational part of Audrey's brain screamed inside her head as she turned around to look at the child behind her. That's all Cappie was really, a child with a good heart and his own obstacles ahead.

And they were all to blame, the people of the world. For letting the madness get so far into the life of every man, woman, and child. This tragedy could rest on the shoulders of those who believed the government made all the right decisions, and those who basked in power unable to believe their utopia could fail.

She reached out her hand and put it on the boy's shoulder, a small comfort. "Cappie, everything will be just fine. I promise." Audrey believed in this, she had too. It kept her getting out of bed in the morning after another dream about everything that happened in this disaster.

Cappie smiled, "I hope so. I want to go to school when it opens again."

"The school needs to be repaired though, considering my old house took a beating." Audrey replied as they began walking again. The crowds were thinning to some extent giving the two a quicker passage through the street.

"What house were you in?" Cappie asked as he opened the shop door for Audrey. "Hufflepuff? Gryffindor? What?"

She giggled as Cappie closed the door behind them. "Ravenclaw, that's my old house. The Ravenclaw tower came down during the final battle."

"Wow…"

"That in itself really puts a damper on any future reunions though," Audrey said jokingly as she deposited herself on the couch, "You nervous about your sorting or something?"

Cappie's face turned red, "No! Of course not that's months away!" He picked up a book that was on a table nearby and began to do a bad imitation of reading a book.

"Any particular reason your reading '_Magic of the Ancient World' _upside down?" Audrey asked dryly.

"I'm learning to read books upside down," Cappie replied quickly.

"Don't be a smart-mouth, and for the love of Merlin be _careful_ with that book!" Audrey said loudly as Cappie place the book back on the table with a '_thud!'_ and ran out the shop door where shouting could be heard from the streets. "What's going on this time?" Audrey asked as she stood up and walked out the door and into the masses so she could see what was going on.

"S-sir, can't we talk about this?" John stuttered as he looked up at an older man who looked to Audrey to be in his early fifties. "I mean y-you were out of the country and everything."

"_I_ took my _wife_ out of the country for our own safety while you left your wife, _my daughter_, in this place with all of the madness, Death Eaters, and dark magic!" The older man shouted raising his wand to the level of John's nose. Audrey noticed John flinching, either in fear or anger.

"Umm, sir, could you lower your wand, please?" John asked as he crossed his eyes so he could stare at the tip of his father-in-law's wand, which was now emitting red sparks less than a millimeter away from his nose. "I think there are better ways to handle this."

Audrey snapped around as she heard the door to the shop open suddenly behind her and Septimus screaming "What the devil is going on out here!" He crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared at the crowd, who stared back with shocked looks on their faces, and waited for an explanation. "Due to all the commotion out here a very important project has been ruined. All of the shouting has disrupted the well being of my latest experiment!"

"Ah, Septimus," Audrey walked up to explain what was going on. "John got himself into a spot of trouble and is being held at wand point."

Septimus nodded, "Okay, carry on then!" He turned around and walked back inside the shop, causing Audrey to roll her eyes and walk through the crowd drawing her wand in case John needed a bit of help.

John was now dangling in the air by his shirt collar and looking more scared then he had a few moments before. Audrey could not tell from where she was standing before but up close it was more obvious that Ellie's father was a decent sized man who was built like a tank. And John was about to get crushed. When John was suddenly dropped and Ellie's father walked off with a look rather strange look on his face, Audrey rushed over and pulled him to his feet.

"What was that all about?" Audrey asked as John managed to stagger to his feet with Audrey's help.

"I guess the letter to Ellie's parents got intercepted when we wrote to them about our elopement. So I basically just met my father-in-law to have him challenge me to a duel at sundown…"

Audrey whistled, "Damn, he doesn't like you does he?"

"No, I don't believe he does. I better see if I can find someone to second me in case he decides to make our duel a wrestling match." John said soberly as the crowd left to continue shopping. "I wonder if one of my friends from work would be available to help me."

Audrey looked aghast, "What does that make me? I'm perfectly capable of helping you out of this."

"No, not what I meant, I've gotta friend who's way up in the Ministry hierarchy and he's a real stickler for rules and such, if I can pull him out of his pit of self loathing he might want to come here and give his lecture about the importance of the law. Or possibly remind him about the International ban on dueling. Though it's not like that law stopped the Dueling Society's annual competition. It's their sixth year doing this, right?

"Seventh actually and I'm hoping Scully will hook me up with an invitation this year. But let's stay focused. This wouldn't be the same friend…" Audrey trailed off as she recalled an incident of their escape.

"Who I held at wand point as a hostage on our way out of the Ministry, and then Lucia threatened his future children as you came into the room screaming 'time to go!' after you and Septimus melted that ugly statue. Yes, the very same friend." Audrey gave an involuntary shudder at the memory. The look on the poor man's face was a mixture of confusion, and pure horror as Lucia began to go into detail about how she was going to do it.

_'I hope I never see that guy again… I'll either apologize for Lucia, or piss myself laughing…'_

"Well, you sure he'll agree to plead your case after you and Lucia traumatized him like that?" Audrey asked stuffing her hands into the pockets of her robes and tilting her head to the side.

"No, he probably won't. Especially after Lucia started making jokes about studhorses and our Ministry Breeding Program theory. Still it doesn't hurt to try, and if I'm right and he tells me I'm on my own, you want to be my second?" Audrey smiled and nodded in agreement. "Great! I'll talk to you later Aud!" John turned around and walked towards the Leaky Cauldron slowly.

"He's doomed…" Audrey muttered as she turned back around to walk into the shop. She had her hand on the doorknob when the sudden sound of a lady screaming nearby filled the air. Turning around quickly to notice a girl about Cappie's age walking calmly between the groups of shoppers clutching a plain brown handbag in her hand, Audrey walked quickly down the steps after her.

The girl's clothes were worn and tatty, like she had been on the streets for some time. Audrey didn't bother to take out her wand to summon the bag back; the kid did not look old enough for a wand and any person with common sense put anti-summoning charms on their personal belongings when they were out these days. Well, at any rate a good old fashioned chase seemed just the thing to pass the time until the evening.

"Outta the way shoe-licker!" The girl shouted as she suddenly broke into a run shoving herself between a young couple who was holding hands in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies. Audrey noticed the girl had delicately slipped her hand into the man's pocket to steal his wallet as well. The girl seemed to be very much in practice; she took the wallet like a professional, drawing attention to the man's own hand as it was removed from his girlfriend's grip only to steal his wallet, ingenious, but reckless.

_'Being followed by a fully trained witch and still snatching wallets, that's the height of a cocky attitude right there…'_ Audrey thought as she slipped between a group of women gossiping over the latest _Witch Weekly. 'Really kid, you're gonna be easy to follow.' _

The girl looked back and met Audrey's eyes and came to the realization she was being followed. Her hazel eyes narrowed as she picked up the pace and began sprinting down the street. Audrey broke into a run and took off after her.

Taking some familiar twists and turns through the streets that seemed oddly familiar; Audrey realized it was the same path Cappie had taken after he stole that book from the shop. The girl had just turned into Knockturn Alley and was cutting between shops and leaping over boxes of newly arrived goods for Borgin and Burkes. Audrey was beginning to believe there was someplace down here where these kids were coming from.

Removing her wand from the sleeves of her robes and pointing it at the back of the retreating child, Audrey stopped and thought the incantation, _'Vestigium'! _

A white light erupted from the end of Audrey's wand and sunk down to the street disappearing and then reappearing farther down the street, and then repeating the movement. It was following the girl's trail; Audrey slowed her pace to a steady walk and followed the marker through the dark streets.

Audrey's pride and joy, a spell of her own design that had taken a little over two years to finalize and perfect to this degree. She had begun this while she was still in school and had just begun working for Septimus. He had helped get started one evening after the shop closed and taught her about wand work charts. The charts were a great help, describing in detail what each movement of the wand meant and what it was used for. Audrey had driven her dorm mates' nuts that school year considering she had set fire to mostly everybody's bed at some point.

Oo0Oo0

"So it's true then, Cappie Garland did go straight!" A boy said loudly, his voice cracking. "I thought that was another of Serena's lies!"

"Shut up, Bugsby," the girl Audrey had tracked shouted shooting out of her chair, like someone had set off firecrackers beneath her. "I'd pay _galleons _to keep the lot of you quiet." The girl pulled her wavy sand-blonde hair back in a ponytail and gave Cappie a look like one would expect from a disapproving parent. "What brings you back to our neck of the woods, Cappie? We haven't seen you in a few days and we were starting to think the last few Death Eaters had gotcha. We hear you went straight."

Audrey had crouched down behind some crates outside an old shop, and had just finished casting a disillusionment charm on herself before she looked through the broken window again for a better look. The boy called Bugsby appeared to be only a couple of years older than Serena and seemed to be in the middle of a growth spurt that left him mostly legs and elbows. Behind Cappie were a couple of girls who found glaring at the back of Cappie's head a fascinating new past time, and two other boys sat on crates around the room.

_'When did Cappie get here? I guess he knew where this place was for a while.'_

"Rena, I need to talk to you, that's why I'm here." Cappie stepped forward and met Serena's eyes, "Please Rena?"

Serena waved her companions away and led Cappie towards the window that Audrey was looking through. Ducking down to hid under the window sill Audrey stayed completely motionless and afraid to even breathe as the conversation took place over her head.

"What are you here for?" Serena started, her voice cool. "I thought that you were working for Loony Lowell, and his feminine looking shop boy, who tried to follow me here by the way, I lost him behind No Speak_._"

_'Feminine looking shop boy! My breasts are not…' _Audrey pulled her robes tightly against her to see the faint outlines of her body._ 'Okay, maybe they are.'_

Cappie laughed, "Septimus and Causey are really nice, and I'm only there to pay off the debt from after I stole that book for that masked man. I'll be there for a while; it was worth a hundred galleons Rena! _A hundred __galleons!_"

Serena whistled, "I haven't seen the masked man around lately. He know he got his book and I don't expect to see him again anytime soon. But if I do see him again I won't be taking any more work from him, 'specially if you got caught doing it. Anything else you came here to tell me, Cappie?"

"Yeah, there is," The sound of rustling paper caught Audrey's attention. "I found this in the _Prophet _this morning, thought you would all like to see it. It's a list of people who have been found and released from Azkaban and are now looking for missing family members; Bugsby's big brother, the Violet sister's mum, and the Bello brother's Godfather have all been released from Azkaban. They're all at home safe and trying to find them."

There was an intake of breath over Audrey's head. "Wow, that's great news." Audrey almost shot up out of fright as Serena shouted, "Bugsby! Violets! Bellos'! You're all going home; your folks are out of Azkaban!" There were cries of elation coming from inside the building. "Here you lot, their locations are in this article! See?"

"Gonna come with us Serena?" A little girl's voice asked as the paper passed to another eager hand. "You don't got anyplace else to be."

"I think I'll stay right here," Serena replied curtly. "I've grown rather fond of this dump," something that sounded like a glass jar crashed into the opposite wall. "Didn't mean to kick it that hard. Right then, I'll walk you lot to the Leaky Cauldron." The sounds of running feet echoed through the building and then the slamming of the door.

Audrey stood and checked that her disillusionment charm was holding. Satisfied that it was, she got up and walked back to Diagon the way she came.

Oo0Oo0

Breathing heavily as if she had just run a marathon, Audrey sat down on the steps of Gringotts and let her eyes wander in the direction of the Leaky Cauldron. She felt convinced Serena was going to pick a few more pockets this evening in all the commotion, and Cappie had gone with her to say good-bye to their friends. If Audrey saw Cappie picking pockets or taking part in any kind of criminal activity, the boy would be paying off more then what he already was.

On another matter, something Serena had said was playing like a broken record.

'"_I haven't seen the masked man around lately. He got his book and I don't expect to see him again anytime soon. But if I do see him again I won't be taking any more work from him, 'specially if you got caught doing it."' _

'_Masked man… Who would hire children to steal valuable books? Nothing we sell could be that important, could it?' _Audrey rested her head in her hands as she sunk into thought. _'Cappie never told me why it was that specific book he stole, maybe now would be a good time to ask him about it…'_

"Pardon me, miss. I'm looking for John Townsend; do you know where I can find him?" The voice was unmistakably male, a bit haughty sounding and coming from right behind her. Audrey placed her hand on her wand as she turned to find herself eyelevel with the man's knee.

"Nope, last I saw him he was off to work to track down a second. His father-in-law's not very fond of him, you see. I've heard people are placing bets all over the alley since the show this morning." Audrey took her eyes off the man's trouser leg and pointed towards the shop steps of a nearby shop. "There's a betting booth right over there."

The man set his briefcase down for moment, he sounded annoyed. "I'm not here to make petty bets."

"Then you might be able to find him at the Ellie's Bakery at the other end of the Alley, you can't miss it."

"Thank you."

The man picked up his briefcase and walked off. Not before Audrey had gotten glimpse of the identification tag hanging off the handle.

'_P.I.W. Ministry of Magic… Great, I just gave a Ministry moron directions to Ellie's place. She'll be overrun by stupidity within the week.' _

Brought from her thoughts by the sounds of the off-key singing of hit songs, Audrey looked towards the Leaky Cauldron and took in the sight of John and Septimus, arms slung over one another's shoulders. John was the only one who seemed to be completely smashed, Septimus may have been less so. Audrey had no idea why, the man could never pass up a drink.

_"My bewitching girl, _

_Where have you gone?_

_I have what you need, _

_Right he-ere!_

_My dear,_

_My darling,_

_Please be mi-ine._

_You're so fine. _

_My darling, you are…_

_Lovely,_

_Charming, _

_Enchanting._

_Truly, my darling, you are…_

_My bewitching girl!"_

Placing her hands over her ears and praying for the hit single to end as quickly as possible, and on a good note with the shoppers and locals. But that may have been too much to hope for. Until they both sobered up, Audrey had never seen those two before.

"Thanks for the drinks, Shep," slurred John as he leaned on the old man for support. "Really, I had no idea how good those three drinks tasted together…"

Septimus was somehow keeping both of them upright while leaning on his staff, "I thought you would like the Saturday Special. Nice to know I was right."

"Darn right you were!" John staggered forward as Septimus stepped off to the side. Audrey stared, as the two of them walked crookedly in her direction. "I say we do this again next Saturday, and make it a pub night. Wanna come, Audie?" John fell onto his knees laughing drunkenly.

Audrey took a good long look at John, "Don't call me Audie." Then stood to look at Septimus who just shrugged, "You drank all the sober up, didn't you?"

"Am I still standing?"

Audrey stood on the tips of her toes so she was eye level with the older man's nose. "Don't be a smart arse, just tell me what happened."

"Look Audrey," Septimus took a deep breath. "I found him slumped over the bar when I went over to the Leaky for a pint." Audrey rolled her eyes; the old man never had more than a pint of whiskey. "Hey, it could happen. Johnny-boy here was mumbling something about something called tank. He was saying this _tank, _whatever it is, was going to crush him in a duel."

Setting her feet firmly back on the ground Audrey took a very deep breath trying to feel the peace she had felt very early this morning. It was long gone. Most-likely on that vacation Audrey was never going to get in this economic slump.

"That _'tank' _is John's father-in-law who's going to beat him into a bloody pulp in _ten minutes!_" Audrey was working herself up into a frenzy now. She did _not_ want to be the one to tell Ellie her husband died while dueling her father drunk. That may just beat the sex talk in the list of awkward conversations. "John said earlier he was going to see if a friend of his could help him out of this, was there anybody else there?"

"No just me and the boy from what I saw."

"Great, I guess this friend of his said no," Audrey muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose trying to silence this sudden, pounding headache. There was no time to update her will. Maybe Septimus would burn that box of letters under her bed if she asked. "Have you seen Cappie around by the way?"

"Yes, I have actually; he's sitting with that goblin acquaintance of yours and what appears to be my charming niece on the steps of that shop across the street."

Audrey turned around quickly, almost tripping over John who had tried to climb up the steps. "Dammit! Sorry John, but maybe you should stay where you're at. Can you-?"

"Yeah, I'll watch him. I owe him for the bottle of firewhiskey of his he was trying to hide."

"Where's the whiskey now, Shep?" John asked as he fell back onto the stairs. "Ya still owe me for tha' bottle from the office."

Septimus gave John a nasty look, "Boy, I just paid you off for that with all those specials I bought for you. Don't be getting greedy."

"Who says I'm greedy? I'm jus' drunk."

"Most reasonable thing you've said today, Johnny-boy."

Audrey missed the rest of the conversation as she had already taken off to tell Cappie to get Ellie. Or if nothing else, at least a bit of sober up for her poor husband.

Cappie took off grouchily towards Ellie's bakery. Audrey gave Raguk a respectful nod, and sat down on the step next to Lucia and explained the situation. Lucia laughed loudly causing stares from passersby. "John's _smashed?_ That's hilarious! He never seemed the type."

"Have you seen his father-in-law? If I were in John's shoes I'd get smashed too." Audrey explained as Raguk snorted loudly behind her.

"When's the fight start? I've got a bet with a friend of mine from work about how long it's going to take for Townsend to get creamed. I've got another one about how long it'll take Mason to drop his wand and break Townsend like a toothpick." Raguk stated with a dark chuckle, making Audrey tremble in fear.

Lucia began to laugh as well, a soft, confident sound that made Audrey shake a little more. "Sorry Raguk, but I'm willing to bet you fifteen galleons that Ellie is going to break up this little party."

Raguk eyed Lucia wearily, his long fingers folded in his lap as a look of realization crossed his face. Audrey leaned away from the witch and the goblin. "I'll take that bet Miss Selwyn." Lucia smiled an evil little smile.

Enjoying the silence that followed for the next few minutes, Audrey took a moment to try and collect her thoughts. She was hoping Cappie could get Ellie before this whole thing got out of hand. Then again, it may have already.

Mr. Mason was already in front of the bank facing John, who was swaying unsteadily on his feet. The crowd was assembling around the two combatants shouting encouragement to who they had placed bets on to be the victor. The man running the betting booth was starting to close up so he could get a good seat.

Jumping to her feet and running through the crowd to try and reach John before the Tank could crush him; all Audrey could hear was the sound of laughter coming from the center of the circle. Wait, _laughter?_

Audrey peered over Cappie's head as Ellie stormed into the ring to find her father laughing at John. The young woman's face was a bright, livid red. Audrey knew all the signs of Ellie's explosive temper, this was just the warning sign.

"Dad! Jonathon! What are you _doing?_" Ellie shouted her hands placed on her hips and her foot tapping. John almost fell over as he spun around to get a look at his savior, Mr. Mason just laughed harder. "Tell me what in the hell is going on here!"

"Sorry Ellie dear, I was just getting to know my new son-in-law. Right, Townsend?" Mr. Mason said cheerfully. "I wasn't going to hurt you boy, I hope you know that." This was met with loud groans of displeasure from the crowd, people who worked for the government, no matter how nice they were in person, were not particularly well liked at the moment. Ellie's hazel eyes flashed as she glared at the crowd silencing them immediately.

"Mum's ready to leave by the way, she's watching the baby until we all get back to say good-bye." Ellie turned to walk back to the shop and peered at John over her shoulder with a slightly sadistic smile on her face. "And John dear, I don't envy that hangover you're going to have tomorrow morning."

As Ellie and her family left and the crowd dispersed Audrey swore she could've heard Raguk swearing in his native tongue down the street and Lucia whooping gleefully nearby.

Oo0Oo0

_**Author's Note: Yes, this took awhile. But I had reasons for this. The development of a post-war world was something I want to explore and I'm doing that through Audrey and her experiences post-war I wanted to explore the average people from all walks of life, civilian, Ministry, and child. As all have been affected to varying degrees.**_

_**Seven will be a significant number throughout the story. It just seems right somehow.**_

_**Reviews are the only payment a fanfiction writer receives. They make us all very happy. They make us update sooner. **_

_**REVIEW PLEASE! **_


	8. Government Involvement

**Chapter Eight: Government Involvement**

_May 15__th __and 17th__ 1998_

Celeste Cadwallader was not pleased with this new assignment. Some idiot was going to pay for this. Why would they send an Enforcer like her to keep watch in Diagon Alley? Most of her unit had been annihilated during the war, some were now working with the remains of the Auror department, and the others were struggling to keep up with massive workloads. They needed all the help they could get. Not to get friendly with civilians. Celeste had never been good with people. Now if only she could say that to her Department head without getting pink slipped.

"Cadwallader, I know this may be inconvenient," Celeste rolled her eyes as she flipped through the files containing information needed for this job. This was far from being convenient for sure. "But the crime rate is sky high and we want those vigilante groups that keep threatening to pop up under watch."

Personally, Celeste could think of many other ways to keep civilians off the streets and get more Enforcers on said streets. But arguing with her boss seemed ineffective at best. Celeste could not wait until this guy retired; get somebody effective in charge of this place. Preferably herself.

Celeste was a highly intelligent and ambitious witch. She was willing to bring down any criminal who was stupid enough to get in her way, and would have successfully if she had been put out in the field during her two years of employment as an Enforcer of the law of the Ministry of Magic. The only time she had seen any action during her career was during her first day on the job, and that was only when she found the Head Enforcer with his secretary in a cold case cupboard. Celeste had reported them both. She had been stuck at a desk position ever since.

"I'm quite sorry about taking you away from the paperwork you do so well."

'_I'm only doing deskwork because you're afraid I'm a gossip, you just wanted to keep an eye on me.'_

"But considering the unfortunate death of Baxter Buble and the Diagon Enforcers-"

'_Nobody's going to miss that lazy sod. I imagine the locals are still celebrating the Diagon Enforcers arrests for war crimes against muggleborns and other civilians during the war.'_

"Someone needs to be in the area to keep things under control. Someone who is reliable-

'_Please, you're just taking your opportunities and using them to your advantage. Sending a semi-permanent desk clerk to wach of a group of civilians who aren't very happy with the government anyway, I'm not an idiot. If I'm found out I'll either be injured or killed.'_

"Well, anyway, all of the information is in this file on the current situation and a couple of places that are on our watch list." The Head Enforcer folded his hands on his desk as Celeste read through paper B14. Each shop and shopkeeper suspected of being involved with vigilante groups of any sort were on that list. Celeste ignored the people and focused on the places. Most people who were accused of any one crime were probably innocent. Places were shady dealings were going on were easier to deal with then following numerous innocent individuals, besides the list of possible headquarters was more interesting.

Celeste raised her eyebrows as she stared at the two places at the top of the list. "The Sneezing Snitch and Bennett's Sweet Shop," she read dryly. "A shady pub and a sweet shop?"

"We believe the owners are the co-leaders. We're not entirely sure who's in charge. We want you to find out about the situation, and report back to us when your find something of interest. I've spoken with Tom and he's allowing you a couple of rooms in the Leaky Cauldron as a headquarters, the details are in your file. Now unless you have any questions, you are dismissed."

She closed the door behind her and walked down the hall and stepped into the elevator. Then began to bring the files up to her forehead mumbling, "Why? Why?" every time they hit. This was going to be an absolute disaster.

"Everything okay, Cadwallader?"

Celeste shot the redheaded man a cold glare. "Does it look okay, Weasley?" Celeste sighed and ceased beating herself with the files. "They've given me my first field assignment."

Percy blinked, "That's good, right?"

"Yes, but I need to go spy on some vigilante groups. I've heard these are people are still upset about what happened in Diagon Alley during the war, and rightly so. They may be unwilling to cooperate with a Ministry Enforcer like myself. Especially after the Buble fiasco."

_'But maybe, I can put these people under my thumb and take care of their problems at the same time.' _Celeste ignored the rest of the conversation as she was lost in thought.

Oo0Oo0

People could call the second unofficial meeting of the Night Watch a lot of things, loud, effective (to an extent), and cavity inducing. This evening the young people had gathered at the sweet shop run by Russell Bennett, the idealist behind this scheme and was now passing the time until the last member arrived, all they were going to do was discuss final plans and the now inevitable involvement of the government. But all of that was far from their minds at the moment; Bennett and Scully were seeing how much of the earwax flavored Bertie Botts they could eat before they threw up as Lucia cheered them on from where she was sitting nearby. Audrey just shook her head in disbelief as she took a couple of swigs from one of the many bottles of butterbeer Scully had brought from the pub.

'_If Russell keeps putting those Bertie Bott's away like he's doing he could win some type of eating contest.' _Audrey thought as Lucia held up the hand of Russell Bennett while Scully began to gloriously upchuck the last thirty minutes of effort to bring down the reigning champion. _'Wait, he just did.'_

"Why… In the name of Merlin's sagging buttocks… Do you always have so many of those accursed earwax beans?" Scully rested his hand on the table as he cleaned out the bucket with a wave of his wand.

Russell chuckled, "Nobody really wants to buy them for some reason."

"Better question: Why do you have an eating contest with them?"

"Again, nobody wants to buy them. I've got to get rid of the things somehow and challenging you seems like a really good idea."

Scully looked up at the ceiling and mumbled, "Why don't I have anything better to do on a Wednesday night? Why?"

"I have an answer, but you may not want to hear it Scully, it's because you can't seem to get any-" Lucia said solemnly. The rest of Lucia's statement was drowned out by the sounds of Scully trying to drown out the rest of the sentence while singing the song 'A Cauldron Full of Hot Strong Love'. It stopped after a couple of bars and Lucia giving him a hard stare. "I was going to say business on Wednesdays, you pervert. Though the reason you were thinking of might be true to. Not everything that comes out of my mouth is dirty."

"I know a lot of people who would say otherwise." Russell said as he hopped up on the counter next to Audrey. "Right Audrey? You did room with her for seven years, after all."

"No comment." Audrey replied firmly as she looked over at the man sitting beside her. She never seemed to notice how nice and brown his eyes were before. Russell had a nice smile too, a little crooked and mischievous looking. Audrey smiled softly as she shifted her gaze to the empty bottle in her hands, her cheeks red.

A confused look crossed Russell's face, then he shrugged and turned back to Lucia and Scully's discussion about patrol schedules. They all debated about how big of a group they should have and how long they should poke around looking for the loose tongued sources they all knew existed. Then the conversation turned to…

"Hey, when's John gonna get here?" Russell asked reaching for another drink, "He's late again, and I want to discuss my idea for a Watch shift in Knockturn."

Lucia almost spat out her Butterbeer, "What did you just say!?"

"I said-"

"We know what you said, Russ." Scully said raising a hand, "Why would you want a shift down in _Knockturn_ of all places?"

"Well, Knockturn is a Dark Magic stronghold right? Maybe the source of Diagon's crime spree is down there somewhere, maybe in the darker end of the place," Russell explained as he tried to unsuccessfully open his butterbeer. "It wouldn't surprise me a bit at all."

Audrey opened her mouth to tell Russell what she had overheard from Cappie and Serena. She couldn't get the words out before Scully began to have his say about yet another of Russell's ideas. "Russell, it's called Knockturn Alley for a reason, it's going to be dark in there one way or another. Now, let's think about this one. The crimes are taking place in _Diagon_ for a reason; someone knows the routines of the people they're going to rob beforehand. I'm imagining they have a flat near enough to watch them and plan everything ahead of time."

"The only thing that's been taken from my shop is chocolate frogs. How do you make an elaborate plan to steal candy? It isn't difficult, this person just walks in and walks back out while I'm in the storeroom counting my supplies. And before you say anything else, I do this at a different time every day. So I've just killed your elaborate plan theory." Russell scoffed, focusing his energy on opening his drink. Audrey reached over and pried it gently out of Russell's hands and used her wand to pop the cork out of the bottle. "Thank you Audrey, could you show me how to do that sometime?"

"Sure thing!" Audrey replied before turning to face Scully, "And what if these robberies aren't being planned by rational adults? You've heard the stories, what if these crimes are being committed by the desperate who aren't being helped? Like children."

Scully chuckled, "Children? Audrey, Cappie is the exception and not the rule."

"There's a girl running wild out there Scully. If you hear anything about a girl named Serena then we can wrap up one more local problem. I doubt the kid is committing these crimes on her own! I think there's a puppet master of sorts pulling the strings."

"Alright, I think you've got a point, I'll keep my ears open. Anyway, as I was saying, all our problems over the past couple of years can be traced back to the government; those decisions are going to take time to get revoked. I heard a rumor the other day that the law to deny the sale of a wand or other magical item can still be denied to a muggleborn. And I've also heard that a person can still be denied a job based on blood status."

Audrey took out her frustration by trying to manually uncork a bottle of wine.

"I said they were rumors. Though laws like that are going to need time to be revoked."

"You have no idea." John said firmly as he walked into the area where the meeting was being held, sat down across from Scully, and propped his feet on the table. Audrey didn't remember hearing him walk in. "I've got a friend in the Minister's office and according to him the new administration is hitting a lot of snags to get these laws revoked and to put Muggleborns on equal footing with everyone else."

"Nice of you to stop by John, I was starting to wonder if you were going to show up," Russell greeted from where he sat on the counter.

"These days these meetings are the high point of my week." John said as he put his hands behind his head in a very relaxed manner. "Why would I want to miss it?"

Scully leaned forward looking very interested and slightly predatory. "Who do you know in the Minister's office, Johnny-boy? Anybody important? What's this person's name?"

"I would tell you, except you said yesterday you wanted to make every Friday Bureaucrat Bashing day," John replied smugly.

"I do seem to recall a Thicknesse Thrashing Thursday," Russell added.

"Ha, you boys are hilarious; now let's get back to business. Listen up John, Bennett here thinks that we should have a Watch shift in Knockturn, if only because it's dark and creepy." Lucia said as she leaned back in her seat crossing her legs, "And he seems to be trying to convince us it's a good idea and Scully is being a smart-arse about the whole thing. I feel inclined to agree with Scully on this one, there may not be anything noteworthy down there. Sure it's dark magic headquarters and all that, but still it just deals with the dark stuff. It doesn't mean the people are bad, just really creepy."

_'I'd better corner Cappie for some information about anything unusual he's heard about…' _Audrey thought. _'And if there's anything he needs to tell me about at all.'_

"I know I'm right," Russell said as Scully adjourned the meeting, much to John's disappointment.

Oo0Oo0

"Hey, why do I have to come?" Cappie complained as all the residents from the Septenary stood outside the Sneezing Snitch as Septimus tried to open the door, without success.

"Because the last time we left you alone at the shop, I had to sort the back room again after you walked in there with a lit candle, scaring off the experiments. I still haven't found that Norwegian Pus Plant by the way." Audrey grumbled as she looked down at Cappie who gave her a sheepish smile as he dug the toe of his shoe in the dirt. "Where did you find those matches anyway?"

Lucia laughed seeing the attempted look of innocence on Cappie's face, "And we also brought you just in case we get stopped by people on the way back who are wondering why we're out after curfew. We plan to tell them that we went to look for you after ran away and we had just found you. And besides, we couldn't find a sitter."

"Couldn't find one because he'd robbed everybody worth asking at some point," grumbled Septimus as the door finally opened to let them in, "Old Ms Foster had a real fit when I asked her about watching the boy. Cursed, screamed, and managed to damn me to hell at one point, which is nothing new."

Audrey grinned as the sounds of a good evening for the Sneezing Snitch reached her ears; she stopped grinning once she realized most people were complaining about something. Audrey couldn't quite hear what they were all complaining about but she was really hoping they were all complaining about politics or something of that nature.

Septimus split off from the rest of the group and strode over to a group of older men who were whispering conspiratorially at a nearby table. Lucia led everyone else to the back room where Scully was waving them inside frantically.

_'That's unusual, he's normally pretty relaxed.' _Audrey noticed as they all walked inside and shut the door behind them drowning out the sounds of loud shouts and jeers at some poor soul's expense.

Russell leaped out of his chair and exclaimed, "We have a problem! Scully got his booze snatched!"

Audrey could have sworn that during the momentary silence that followed, her left eyebrow began to twitch. It stopped when Cappie began to laugh, holding onto his sides as he did so. That snapped Audrey back to the reality that a ten year old probably should not be hearing this type of discussion, or be in a pub for that matter.

"How in the hell do you lose, Merlin knows how many, bottles of firewhiskey and wine!" Lucia exclaimed as Audrey placed her hands over Cappie's ears, much to the boy's embarrassment. "Really Scully!"

Scully looked abashed, "It is not my fault, I told Russell to lock up after he helped me clean up before he left last night. I got up this morning to count my stock and it was all gone! I had a reverse age line up to keep the over-age out of the store room." He looked over at Russell, "We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't promised free drinks to every Tom, Dick, and Harry Potter impersonator who showed up for this little party!"

"You remember Celeste Cadwallader?" Russell asked suddenly, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "That scrappy Slytherin a year behind us, she works for the Ministry now and I saw her in the Leaky Cauldron this morning. I doubt she's here with good intentions."

Lucia snorted as she sat down in a large plush chair by the fire place, casually brushing her long blonde bangs out of her eyes. "I don't know this Cadwallader person, but my honest opinion is that we should just roll with the punches about this one. And as long as we're in here, take care of Russell's funeral arrangements." Lucia added her last statement with a smile that made Audrey cringe involuntarily.

"I think we've arranged enough funerals," Audrey said quickly as Cappie finally managed to escape her grasp.

A solemn silence filled the room at Audrey's observation. It broke when Scully told everyone to head back into the main room and confess about the lack of drinks. Lucia and Scully managed to guide a rather nervous Russell out the door and into the growing crowd. Audrey and Cappie followed behind them. Scully levitated a crate from behind the bar and placed it in front of Russell who took a deep breath before stepping on top of it and facing the crowd, the color seemed to drain from his face as the entire pub's attention was drawn to him.

Audrey watched Bennett closely in case he fell off the crate; she soon realized that she might want to watch the crowd instead seeing as what Russell was up there about anyway. There was a feeling churning in her gut about what was going to happen next, Audrey did not think it was going to be good in any case. Cappie seemed to have similar ideas as he had made his way behind the bar.

"Uh, hi, how's everyone doing tonight? Having a nice time?" The response was sounds of discontent coming from the crowd. "Um, I'm not sure how to take that, but-"

_"_Bennett, you arse_, where's the booze!?" _Audrey knew that voice. The source was standing up in the back of the room leaning on a wooden cane, and looking angry about this whole situation, and being met with cheers from people nearby.

Russell stepped backwards and would have fallen off the back of the crate if Scully had not had steadied him. "I was just getting to that Septimus; we may be having a problem locating the promised goods."

"_Locating? _Last I checked _booze_ was kept in the _storeroom_!"

A woman stood up and walked towards the bar counter. The woman's face showed nothing, a mask of unreadable emotion, she smiled politely at Russell and Scully and stood in front of the crate. Audrey observed the woman closely; she was a woman of average height with a stocky build. Her brown hair was pulled into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, and her expressionless face stared the crowd into silence.

"My name is Celeste Cadwallader," the woman said, her voice sounded slightly raspy. "I am an enforcer from the Ministry, and I have heard rumors of vigilante groups beginning to form to deal with your problems." Audrey felt herself checking the sleeves of her robe for her wand; it was instinctive by this point, a habit she could not seem to break. She felt better knowing where it was in case things got hairy. "I'll take it I'm right about that and keep talking. The Ministry of Magic seeks to work with the people of Diagon Alley to protect yourselves from Death Eaters that are still free. I am under orders to train those who are interested as Enforcers. If you still wish to take care of your own problems and your own stores then come here tomorrow night and we will get started. Though if you have any information regarding current crimes the Ministry would appreciate that information tomorrow morning at the latest," Celeste smiled again and walked out of the pub as quietly as she had come.

There were loud shouts of confusion after Celeste Cadwallader left, about how the government had no right to interfere here and if vigilante's wanted to work without government approval then those had the support of the majority of the Diagon population. Audrey felt good that they had so much support; the only issue was her criminal record. Though vigilante was probably already on the list from the past years adventures, it may yet get removed considering the regime was out to destroy muggleborns like her, not much choice if people wanted to fight back and put a dent their armor.

Scully stared at the door seeming to contemplating what had just happened. "You know why they sent her out here right? The government wants to keep an eye on any potential problem children like us." The man smiled darkly. "It doesn't help either that a good bit of the law enforcement officials were wiped out during the war, so that gives them incentive. It is a bad idea, but it isn't."

"Can you explain that a bit more, Scully? I've been really out of touch." Audrey asked as the shouting died down and then began to pick up again.

"Well, the thing is Audrey, the government sends Cadwallader out to get some kind of order out here, some type of protection, and it's all volunteers they don't have to pay. We're cheap and dispensable, and what we're not getting paid goes to rebuilding efforts. Not a bad thing for the community overall, but it doesn't fill our vaults any."

"You're right, our vaults are going to stay empty if we do something, but they'll be even emptier if we need to keep resupplying our stock."

"That's true, but," Scully's smiled widened, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "Who says we need to be good little government puppets?"

Audrey smiled, "Withholding information from a Ministry official; that sounds almost treasonous."

"Well, we do need to give her enough information to keep her satisfied. But it all doesn't have to be true."

"Mix enough truth in with the lies and they won't be able to tell fact from fiction. It's a solution I can live with. I still feel very indebted to our charming Ministry." Audrey's smile darkened as she gripped her wand tighter.

"Let's start with a bit of truth than. I'll run down to the Leaky Cauldron and leave a bit about our mysterious thieves after I close up here tonight. Only they are now around six foot two, and ugly as sin."

The conversation ended after Russell announced it was time to go, and fell off the crate. Much to the customers amusement.

Oo0Oo0

Audrey and Russell ended up staying at the pub after everyone left to help Scully clean up, a small start to repaying Scully for the loss of his goods. Russell willingly admitted that it was his fault; Scully was unlikely to argue in that regard. After they both left for their shops, a silence followed until Russell broke it with a comment about the weather, leaving Audrey to wonder why people would ask that in England where it rained almost every day and cloudy the rest of the time.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Audrey said as they both stopped in front of Russell's shop.

Russell rubbed the back of his neck nervously, looking up at the sign for his shop. "You know with all this stuff going on here… I really don't think it's safe for a… woman to… well, walk home alone."

"It's a twenty foot walk; I think I'll be fine," Audrey said firmly, "Thanks for the offer though."

Oo0Oo0

_**Author's Note: Yes, Celeste's wanting to keep the watch under her thumb is going to be causing problems if they have her chasing phantoms. **_

_**And now for a rhyme.**_

_**Roses are red,**_

_**Violets are blue,**_

_**I have the flu,**_

_**So please REVIEW!**_


	9. Seer

**Chapter Nine: Seer **

_May 19__th__ 1998_

_"Causey, there's someone out there again…"_

_Audrey peered through the bushes her wand in hand. "Maybe we should wait a little longer, it's those same people from before and there's no way they can get through my protection charms. Besides, Septimus told us to watch them."_

_"C'mon, Causey, I'm sick of waiting. Ask the old man if we can go after them or not!"_

_"Someone's in a hurry… ODELL! DOWN!"_

_The tree imitated a scream as the curse collided with it. The tree never hit the ground; the spell had vaporized it before it had the chance._

_Audrey swore as she rolled off of Odell's body. "What the bloody feckin' hell was that!"_

_"I dunno! Let's just get out of here!"_

Oo0Oo0

"Audrey… Hellooo? Auuudreeeey?"

Audrey felt someone shaking her shoulder steadily. She blinked a couple of times before realizing she was lying on the shop's couch, with both Lucia and Cappie leaning over her and beginning to argue about if she was alive or not. A lovely way to start her morning.

"And I say she's dead, so how are we going to get rid of the body?" said Cappie as he leaned over the back of the couch.

Lucia snorted, "If war refused to kill Audrey Causey, then I doubt she just gave up on life in her sleep. So there will be no body dumps."

"Darn."

Audrey made her awakened state known after that with a loud sneeze. Cappie looked embarrassed as Lucia wished her friend a good morning. Audrey just groaned and covered her face with the pillow.

"C'mon Audie, rise and shine," Lucia sang as she to pried the pillow away from Audrey.

Dislike didn't even begin to cover her feelings for the name '_Audie_', it was immense hatred. But Audrey could play dirty too, "I'm up _Lucy_." She expected the pillow would hit her for that, and she was right.

"Don't. Ever. Call. Me. _Lucy._" Lucia snarled holding her pillow over her head, "Merlin's pants, I hate that name."

When Septimus came downstairs to view the scene Audrey took the opportunity to climb over the back of the couch and slip upstairs for a shower.

Oo0Oo0

The Sneezing Snitch was usually not this crowded at noon, a group of eight people stood in front of the pub waiting for Scully to open up. And when Audrey, Lucia, and Russell arrived, the crowd was getting impatient. And impatient people tend to be bored, and boredom leads to political discussions. An older man was talking politics with a young man; both seemed to be complaining about this new government idea they were here for. Audrey was eavesdropping with interest.

"I'm telling you this whole thing is the government trying to keep the people under watch," The older man said, his mustache twitching excitedly. "Sure, we can watch our goods with legal backing, but the thing that bothers me is that we don't have professionals who get _paid_ to do this out here."

The younger man was nodding in agreement, "That's what I was saying. It's like they suspect us all of being Death Eaters or something."

What the men were saying was similar to what everybody else was saying nearby and what Audrey was thinking herself. The government may have had to get involved, but they had no reason to be poking their noses where they really did not belong. It felt a bit like being watched at all times, waiting for someone to mess up.

The feeling was reinforced by the arrival of Celeste Cadwallader. She still looked stoical and to serious for a woman as young as she was, and she was ready for business. Clad in grey robes and a blue cloak that had an emblem of a witch's hat behind a wand. Above that was the symbol of the Ministry of Magic. Audrey felt the air became very tension filled among the volunteers when they saw her insignias. That just enforced many theories among them.

"I hope you all slept well," Celeste began as she put her hands professionally behind her back, appearing not to notice the glares she was receiving. "As long as you are here we might as well talk more about this little… _issue._" Audrey felt her hand gripping her wand tighter then was necessary.

"I know this whole situation is unusual, and completely unexpected. But perhaps it's for the best that the residents are taking some charge here, after all you lot know this place as well, if not better, than your usual enforcer squad." There was a low groan from the crowd. The usual Diagon Enforcer Squad were a bunch of lazy people with no real passion for the work. Celeste continued her speech drily. "Please try to contain your enthusiasm. As I was saying, you are here for a reason-"

"To get a group together for their first watch shift, I hope." Scully said as he stepped out of his pub, waving his wand at the rag that was cleaning the windows. "'Cause I'm dying to know who stole my alcohol."

Celeste's mouth pursed into a thin line. Audrey noticed this sign of displeasure and poked Russell in the ribs to get his attention, warning him of an uncharacteristic outburst by the stoical woman. Russell chuckled.

"Merlin knows we all want to know about your missing _fine products_." Celeste drawled, meeting Scully's eyes coolly. "But I doubt someone who steals chocolate frogs would suddenly take to, what appears to be, some heavy drinking games." There was a low chuckle from the crowd and a scowl from Scully.

"Ha! You're hilarious; now please just send these good folks off to find my goods."

"That's why I'm here."

Audrey scoffed, "I'm not taking orders from some Ministry lapdog."

Russell nodded in agreement as he leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Best to let her think she's in charge, right?"

"Anything you two care to share with the class," Cadwallader shouted.

Audrey and Russell leapt apart shouting simultaneously "No ma'am!" If the Ministry really was watching people, the last thing they needed to know about was the general conspiracy against their representative and what lies they were sending in her direction.

Oo0Oo0

"All I want to know is who we pissed off to get the worst hours," Lucia grumbled clutching her wand and shooting red sparks out of the tip. "Besides you running into the pub when she told all of us to drop and give her twenty."

Russell looked back over his shoulder at the grouchy blonde, "Let's think about that for a minute. Did you say something smart to Cadwallader?"

"Yes."

"Did you attempt to burn her department insignias?"

"Maybe, she had no proof it was just me. That old bloke was having a go too."

"Did you threaten the man you were holding hostage with the removal of his-"

"Okay, okay, we all know I'm no saint. Can't all you men just let it go?" Lucia said quickly, "Seriously, this may explain why I haven't been on a date since we got here."

Audrey looked back at Lucia over her shoulder, "You never mentioned that to me."

Lucia grinned innocently, "I thought you would've noticed Miss Observant. Besides we have more important things to worry about right now."

"Couldn't agree more," Audrey said as they stopped in front of the Leaky Cauldron. "So where do we start?"

Russell reached into the sleeve of his robes and pulled out a watch and a piece of parchment. Audrey looked closer at the paper to have a better look at the spidery script. The writing looked pretty, but it was both formal and direct in its instructions.

_Bennett, Causey, and Selwyn you three are my first choice to look for rumors about your local problems. I want you all to take advantage of the after war euphoria and find something I can use to make an arrest. I want at least a name, and a location where they can be found if possible._

_Have a pleasant evening,_

_Celeste C. Cadwallader_

The threesome stared at the letter for a minute while they considered possible starting points.

"So where do we start? The Leaky or the Broken Broomstick?" Lucia asked as she began to braid her long blonde hair absentmindedly.

"Hey, isn't the Broken Broomstick run by a woman?"

"Yes. There's nothing wrong with that, Russell!"

"I didn't say that, but now I know why I don't go there."

"You're a pervert."

"Look who's talking!"

Audrey looked around the deserted street and took in the sounds of an early evening. Most of the shops were closed and employees were beginning to make their way home to their families. This made the sight of a lone man sitting on the pavement near the entrance to Knockturn Alley all the more disturbing. Audrey gave Russell a nudge to get his attention and pointed him in the man's direction. Russell smiled and calmly strolled over. Russell sat down next to the man and they began to talk. Audrey could not hear the conversation, but it seemed rather quiet anyway. The man leaned closer to Russell to whisper something in his ear. A wide smile crossed Russell's face as he shook the man's hand and walked back over.

"That man will say anything for a couple of galleons. He gave me the name of someone who could give us a lead about our thieves." Russell said as Lucia finished braiding her hair. "Some seer who was here last night telling fortunes by the apothecary, if she's not there tonight then we can double back and try Knockturn."

As luck would have it there was no one in front of the apothecary this evening. Russell seemed thrilled at the idea of having an excuse to head down to Knockturn Alley to both chase a lead and see if he was right about his thieving ring. Audrey could not help but feel Russell may actually have a plausible idea when the three of them entered the place no respectable person wanted to be found.

It was crowded in Knockturn Alley that evening; Audrey pulled the hood of her worn violet cloak over her head as they trudged through the street trying not to drag attention to themselves. She stole a look at a woman who was discreetly sliding a wooden crate to an older gentleman who gave her a bag and took the crate, which suddenly began to make loud barking and snarling sounds. Audrey jumped as Lucia pulled her arm and told her to stop gawking and come on. Audrey did not need to be told twice. They turned the corner and found a woman giving a piece of paper to a little blonde girl. Audrey's eyes widened as the girl turned around. It was Serena.

Audrey would be the first to admit her past glimpses of Serena were fleeting at best. It was difficult to get a look at the girl's face when she was trying to lose you in darkened streets. What Audrey knew about the girl from Cappie, was absolutely nothing. Cappie was absolutely devoted to Serena. His exact words were, "I won't tell you anything! I don't ever want to think about… We swore not to talk about it." Then he went to his room and Audrey didn't see him again until the following morning.

The girl looked up at the three of them for a brief moment, Audrey noticed how large and grey her eyes were, how thin she looked up close. This girl was one of the reasons that order had to be brought back, and soon.

"What are you looking at?" Serena scoffed as Audrey's eyes lingered a little too long. "Don't you have someplace else to be?" Serena tucked her to large cloak closer to her body and took off down the street. For the briefest of moments Audrey felt like running after her, then sense took hold again. What would happen if she caught up with her? Serena may not be all that willing to leave, and if that was the case Audrey forcing the girl away would not help her at all. And, unlike Cappie, Audrey had no justifiable reason to chase her down. Also Audrey wasn't really sure if she was the right person who could help.

Suddenly feeling a tug on her arm Audrey turned to see Russell beginning to pull her in the direction of the seer. She was an old woman wrapped in a tattered silver cloak that seemed to be attached to the mist rising at her feet. Clutching her staff for support she turned to face them with almost life-less grey eyes. Audrey shivered.

The woman took a hollow, raspy, breath and began to speak, "What can I do for you?"

Lucia stepped forward with her characteristic boldness and replied, "We want to know if you saw anything strange last night in front of the apothecary, like anyone shifty sneaking around for instance."

The seer took another hollow breath. Audrey stepped back behind Russell, her hand plunging into the sleeve of her robes to check if her wand was still there. Seers always seemed to be short a few bristles of a broomstick in her opinion.

"I saw nothing but what was in my orb."

Audrey blinked, "Your orb?"

"Yes." The seer's eyes drifted towards Audrey and Russell who both stepped back nervously as she walked towards them. She reached out with a thin hand to grasp Audrey's. She turned it palm up and ran her thumb up and down her hand slowly. Audrey giggled because it tickled. The woman then peered into her orb. "You will either live or die in the months to come. Face a betrayal. Face the traitor in a place you despise."

"Well, that's fitting." Lucia said offhandedly.

"And," the seer continued, "to accomplish this you must lose what you hold dear."

Lucia sniffed, "Wow, what have you been smoking?"

The seer turned to face Lucia calmly and reached out for her hand. "You should be careful as well. Your emotions could destroy you in a crucial moment where your life and those of others are in the balance. The results for you are permanent and irreversible."

Russell held his hand out to the seer while Lucia stood there quietly. "And as for you young man, your decisions today affect you tomorrow."

"Aw, no ominous predictions about my death, I guess that means I'm going to outlive you two." Russell joked as the seer released his hand. "And if you see anything in the – um - physical world ma'am?"

"I'll tell you, don't worry." The woman smiled as a man came running towards them.

The man stopped short in front of the old woman, panting heavily. "Grandmother… I've been looking all over… for you…" The man doubled over clutching his sides. "Ow." He remained in that position for a few moments before standing upright and turning to face the small group. "I'm terribly sorry if anything my Grandmother said upset you. She's gotten worse about wandering off since my Grandfather died."

Audrey looked over at the woman, her eyes gentle as she thought about her own grandmother. "Oh, no, she wasn't bothering us at all."

"Well, that's a relief," the man said as he took her arm. "She used to be quite the fortuneteller. Now whenever she takes someone's palm she goes on about death. She never used to do that, she predicted mostly who people were going to fall in love with and the like." The man looked nervously down the alley. "Well, I better take her home. Have a nice evening."

As her grandson escorted her out of the Alley the old woman turned to look at Audrey once more. "Oh, dear!" she called. "One day soon you will meet a man. Look past the first impression, and you may find someone worth knowing." The old woman winked as she and her grandson walked away.

"You know, I think that old lady just implied that Audrey's going to get laid."

"_Lucia!_"

Oo0Oo0

"Hey, Causey… Did I tell you the one about the witch and the kneazel?"

"To many times, Septimus," Audrey replied a she tried to keep them both upright as they left the shouts and show tunes of the pub behind them. Audrey had no idea how many of the pubs she had visited in the past hour to try and find the old man, praying he hadn't gambled away his key to the shop again. Septimus had the only key, and if you tried to get into the shop using magic then something would blow up in the offender's face. Audrey knew this too well. "Now, could I have the shop key so we can get inside?"

Septimus gave Audrey the key as Lucia snored loudly on the shop steps.

* * *

_**Author's Note: Do you believe that the seer was foreshadowing future events? Possibly she was. Tell me any wild theories you have in a **__**REVIEW! **_


	10. Manhunt

**Chapter Ten: Manhunt**

_May 22__th__ 1998_

Unwelcome Guests-

_On the night of May 21__st__a break in occurred at the shop and home of Ms. Julia Knowles, 39, the sole owner of a small witches' hat boutique in Diagon Alley. Ms. Knowles was awoken at no later than two in the morning to the sound of a loud crash downstairs. Putting on her bathrobe grabbing her wand off her bedside table, the woman rushed downstairs to find the source of the commotion. A man was downstairs looking for her safe and had just knocked down the display case showing her prized Little Miss Witch china collectibles._

_The man looked up and disarmed Knowles before she could react. Then flinging her over the counter and demanding to know the location of the shop's safe. Knowles gave the location of her safe only to be tortured and flung around the shop in return. She suffered a concussion and managed to tell her story before Healers placed her in a magically induced coma until a cure for the many curses used against her are found. _

Audrey finished reading the article from the evening edition of the _Daily Prophet_and looked up at the ceiling pensively. This was the third article about violent break-in's she had read about over the past three days. Whoever this person was he was getting very bold. Disturbingly so. Resting her chin in her hand and drawing her eyes to the corner of one of the surrounding bookcases. If these people were now willing to torture innocent people then the local watch had to really get busy.

Looking up to the sound of someone rustling behind the counter, Audrey just watched as Cappie popped up from behind the counter like a gopher and disappeared behind the counter again. Audrey just raised an eyebrow.

"What are you looking for?"

Cappie shot up from behind the counter once again, "I'm checking your mousetrap."

"Anything in there?" Audrey asked excitedly as she stood picking books up off the table and placing them on the shelves.

"Negative. Sorry Aud." Cappie replied as he pushed himself onto the countertop and promptly lay down upon it. Audrey knew he was doing that to annoy her.

She walked over and poked the boy firmly in the ribs causing him to squeal loudly and roll to the other side of the counter. "I warned you about that, now off to bed with you. It's far too late for ten year olds to be harassing shopkeepers."

Cappie frowned, "Do I have to?"

Audrey smiled and nodded slowly, "I suggest you do so. You see if you don't, there will be consequences."

Cappie's eyes strayed in the direction of the door behind him wher the experiments were kept and shuddered. "Okay, goodnight Audie!" The boy ran upstairs taking the steps two at a time. Audrey stood at the bottom of the stairs until she heard the door close behind him. Audrey remained for a few more minutes to be completely sure Cappie was in his room before grabbing her cloak and walking out into the cool night air.

It was dark and quiet on the street that led to one of the many pubs Septimus favored on many late nights. Audrey was never sure which one he wondered off to on one of those evenings so she wound up asking at each of the local pubs. It was the tiresome part of her routine. It wasn't particularly enjoyable either.

Septimus would be the last person to admit he had a problem; Audrey would be the first to say he did. She did talk to him about it when she first started at the Septenary; he just blew her off saying he did not have a problem and that he could stop anytime he wanted to. He had to stop cold-turkey while they were on the run for some time. The result was that Septimus was much shorter tempered than usual. He lashed out and shouted a lot more then what was normal. He was much happier when a mugglebornman brought a crate of alcohol from his home close to where they were hiding out. Septimus referred to that as the best night of the war. Audrey remembered being horrified at that statement thinking back. There were no good nights in war. No good nights after war either.

Audrey's nightmares were a consent source of fear now. That bloody raid that she had recently began to think about during the day. When they were discovered and taken into custody. Her dreams seemed so real she could smell the smoke and burning bodies, it made her feel sick to her stomach. The screaming, Audrey could even hear the screams after she had woken up some days. Audrey was now beginning to wonder if she had completely lost control of her senses.

Hell, she probably had. The only reason no one had thrown her into an asylum yet was because everyone else in the Septenary were a few ingredients short of a potion themselves.

Continuing her walk Audrey took in the usual late night sights on her way to the Broken Broomstick. There was the old Muggle-born man who had taken to sitting out on in front of Mrs. Palmer's restaurant. Mrs. Palmer didn't like that much, but she fed him well on the days he found someplace else to be during business hours. Despite her friendly, talkative personality, Mrs. Palmer was a business woman through and through.

'_Alright, first stop of the night.' _Audrey thought as she stopped in front of the pub. It was much less grimy looking then the Sneezing Snitch. And it also attracted a much less violent clientele. The sounds of loud jazzy music seeped from under the doorway as Audrey opened the door. The first thing she saw was an extremely clean floor before she drew her eyes to look at the rest of the pub. It was warmer and more inviting then Scully's place that was for sure.

The younger crowd sat on bar stools talking to the barkeep animatedly about the riot on the front page of the evening edition of the _Daily Prophet. _Audrey had read about it over dinner, apparently a large group of Muggleborns who had been sent to Azkaban during the war had gotten together to start a riot in the Ministry of Magic itself to try and get some attention to unjust laws against Muggleborns. The photographs had showed the rioters were as thin and ragged looking as Audrey and her friends were. Their eyes were hollow and desperate looking as they went through the motions of shouting and screaming.

"I'm telling you Eliza, these Muggleborns have finally gone over the deep end. Really, rioting in the Ministry itself is absolutely insane and extremely ballsy."

"You got that right! My father's an Aurorand according to him the riot organizers were brought up to the second floor to be held for a few hours, – you know, Magical Law enforcement – well, anyway, the Minister himself left a meeting withan ambassador from France and came to talk with them about Muggle-born rights."

"Really, that is absolutely badass!"

"I know! It's about time we got a decent human being in charge!"

That was part of the story that wasn't mentioned in the paper.

Audrey wondered over to the back were some of the older crowd were playing cards. She stood with the crowd who were watching a little old witch as she laid her final hand on the table to win the jackpot. The crowd cheered as the witch stood to take a bow and her opponents moaned in unison. Audrey laughed as the little witch thanked them for their money, kissed them on the cheek and walked out the door holding the pot proudly.

"Where's Lowell when you need him?" one of the wizards muttered irritably as he stood picking up his clock off the back of his chair as the crowd dispersed.

One off the other men chuckled, "Coming up with another scheme to give Cavan Toft food poisoning. Right Causey?"

Audrey shrugged, "Not sure, so that means Septimus hasn't been here tonight?"

"Nope, sorry kid. Try the Leaky Cauldron; he may have gone there for a drink tonight. He thinks this place has gotten to clean to be considered a pub."

Audrey smiled, "Thanks. I'll go check right away. Have a nice evening."

"It'll be a nice evening when I win my money back next week!" One of the men called at Audrey's retreating form.

Oo0Oo0

'_Okay, he wasn't in the Leaky… He doesn't go there on polka night…' _Audrey staggered out of the Leaky Cauldron clutching the doorframe as the sound of the polka rang in her ears. Really, who could listen to that? Let alone play it. _'Damn Tom's love of polka…'_ Audrey sighed and walked back down the street lead by the glow of one of the local ghosts.

She was a new spirit Audrey had seen only in passing on her nightly walks and had never spoken too. She bore the tired, haggard, appearance of one who seemed older then her years. Audrey was slightly transfixed as the woman turned and floated back past Audrey towards Gringotts her head held high and eerily silent. And Audrey felt truly spooked.

Audrey's head turned to follow the woman as she continued walking. She never saw the man she collided with as he walked out of Broken Broomstick. On a reflex Audrey's hand flew down to her wand which was being held on her hip by her belt. Audrey kept her head down and peered up through her long, shaggy bangs, her nimble mind running quickly through every hex and curse at her disposal in case this person was a crazed lunatic."Oh, I'm sorry about that." Audrey apologized as she stared at the man's shoes. She couldn't help but notice the bloke had rather large feet.

'_Great, I just bumped into Bigfoot. Maybe I can catch him and sell him to some collector.'_

"No, it's my fault." The man said as Audrey looked up slowly. That voice sounded really familiar, and Audrey couldn't quite place it. An acquaintance from school perhaps?

"I should've been watching where I was going." Audrey said her eyes stopped at his tie.

'_Tie, who would wear a tie pub crawling? Only a… oh great, a bureaucrat.'_

The man Looked at her then looked up and down the street. "I'm looking for George Weasley, have you seen him?"

_'Not since Septimus said something stupid to him the other day.'_

"No, sorry, I haven't seen him," Audrey replied as she continued on her way. Clearing all thoughts of the man from her mind.

Her last stop was a pub down in Knockturn that was known for being absolutely horrifying. Audrey had fished Septimusout of there before and swore never to go there again. Sadly Audrey seemed to be breaking that promise tonight. With Scully awaiting a new shipment of whiskey for his pub for early tomorrow morning, the Sneezing Snitch was closed until then. Unlikely Septimus would be there.

Yanking the hood of her cloak over her head Audrey stepped into Knockturn Alley. The pub wasn't that deep into the place and it was her last logical stop of the evening. If the old man wasn't here then Audrey would just go back to the shop. The door swung wide open as Audrey let herself inside. It was dimly lit by candles that were floating up by the ceiling while the patrons sat at the tables quietly leering at people, like Audrey, who clearly did not belong. Actually, Audrey seemed to be the only person there who obviously wasn't a regular visitor. It was like this last time too. Audrey did not enjoy being stared at.

The barkeep was washing his glasses as he watched the crowd silently through darkened eyes. His gaze finally settled on Audrey as she quietly sat down on one of the barstools. Audrey thought it was due to the bright violet cloak opposed to the many black ones around the pub as her eyes swept the pub. There was nobody there who bore any kind of resemblance to Septimus Lowell.

Audrey sighed and smiled at the barkeep, "Hi, how are you doing tonight?" The man grunted and turned his attention back to his glasses. "I thought as much." Audrey's finger slowly traced circles on the bar top. She left her seat and walked out the door to go back to the Septenary, the entire time being reminded of what the fortuneteller had said the last time she was down there.

'"_You will either live or die in the months to come. Face a betrayal. Face the traitor in a place you despise... And, to accomplish this you must lose what you hold dear."_

_I don't believe in prophecies. The wizardingcommunity is hopefully going to get more peaceful in the coming months... Betrayal? None of my friends would ever betray me; I'd never betray them… Then there can't be a traitor if I use that logic... A place I despise there are plenty of those… I hold too much dear to lose it all. But my friends… We upset a lot of people during the war. Crossed wands with dangerous people during that bloody raid… And my box.' _Audrey's thoughts stopped short as she thought about the small wooden box. And its contents. _'Audrey, don't think about him. He never cared about you anyway.'_

Oo0Oo0

"Hey, did that girl look familiar to you?"

"Yeah, doesn't she work for that blood-traitor alcoholic from the Septenary?"

"I can't believe you know about those old scandals."

"My mother was a very informed woman. And I am very informed about the trouble they caused the Dark Lord's plans."

"As am I, freeing Mudbloods and evading our just laws, you know, I think we're due to pay them a visit."

"I agree."

Oo0Oo0

_"My bewitching girl, _

_Where have you gone?_

_I have what you need, _

_Right he-ere!_

_My dear,_

_My darling,_

_Please be mi-ine._

_You're so fine. _

_My darling, you are…_

_Lovely,_

_Charming,_

_Enchanting._

_Truly, my darling, you are…_

_My bewitching girl."_

There were two men singing the song, arms slung over one another's shoulders as they swaggered drunkenly down the street. A young man and an old man. The old man held a cane, the young on was missing an ear. A very unusual pair by all counts.

Audrey's eyes found them swaggering up the street towards the Septenary as she placed her hand on the doorknob. She stared for a moment while Septimusalmost dragged his companion to the ground with him after his misjudged the placement of his cane. Audrey leapt down off of the shop steps to try and be of some assistance.

"'ello, Audrey," Septimus drawled as his companion threw an arm over her shoulders. "I never realized 'ow nice the neighbor boy was before." He paused for a moment contemplating the young people. "Georgie, this is Audrey. Audrey this is Georgie, the boy I hope you marry if only to pay him back for all the money 'e spent on tonight's drinks after I ran out of money."

Audrey's eyebrows furrowed as George began to sing Nellie Dean. "I'm going to ignore the marriage comment. Where the hell were you? I was fixing to lock up for the night, which means you would've spent the night on the shop steps _again_!"

Septimus smiled, "Good ol' Scully'sgot 'is booze in early." Audrey's hand collided with her forehead. She was now under the impression that Septimus had a sixth sense for finding firewhiskey. If she was correct, it would be best to keep him away from an open flame of any sort. "We only left early 'cause things got a _little_ violent."

Audrey snorted as a figure ran out of the mists from the direction of the Sneezing Snitch. As the man drew closer Audrey realized he looked extremely frazzled. His spectacles askew, hair flying out in different directions, and his shirt sleeve was ripped at the shoulder.

"How violent are we talking about here?" Audrey asked as the man slowed to a walk looking over his shoulder nervously.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, they all got drunk and jumped this confused looking bureaucrat who walked in. They were right to do so, 'e looked shifty."

The new arrival looked scandalized. "I beg your pardon." He puffed himself up pompously, "I'm the Junior Assistant to the Minister of Magic."

Joy. It was that bureaucrat again. Audrey eyeballed the man wearily as Septimus smiled slyly. "What you are is a glorified secretary, boy."

Audrey covered her mouth with her hand so the man wouldn't see her trying to smother her laughter. Septimus was at his funniest in a drunken stupor. He wasn't going to remember any of this in the morning. Unlike the glorified secretary whose face now matched his hair.

George stepped backwards pulling Septimus and Audrey back a couple of steps. "Wah!" Audrey yelped as she found herself balanced precariously on one foot. She felt a steady hand on her back to stop her from falling over. She peered over her shoulder to find that frazzled looking man placing his other hand on his brother's shoulder to keep him standing as well.

"It's time to go home. Come on." Audrey thought the man sounded sad. Then she took a closer look at George and the bureaucrat. They had the same hair color and their eyes were a similar shape. This guy had to be a sibling, or a cousin.

George staggered a few steps away and almost fell over. "C'mon Perce, the night's still young! Fred would've..." He trailed off for a moment. "It's your fault he isn't."

The man looked like he had been slapped. Septimus was wisely keeping his mouth shut, Audrey felt her mouth drop open.

Despite the accusation, the bureaucrat put his brother's arm over his shoulder muttering, "I know it is George," and walked towards the Leaky Cauldron, which was the only way in or out of the Alley this late at night.

Oo0Oo0

_**Author's Note: Worth the wait? Probably not. Sorry it took so long. **_


	11. Head Sorcerer of the Research Society

**Chapter Eleven: Grand Sorcerer of the Research Society **

_May 23__th__ 1998_

"Status Mister Bennett."

"Well Miss Cadwallader, you see, we may have hit some dead ends. A lot of dead ends actually."

"How many dead ends?" The woman looked up from her papers, failing to notice ink dripping off of her quill and onto her official business letter to her boss about the progress being made. Which was very little.

"Over twenty-five at my last count, Cadwallader," Bennett said sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "We've followed every rumor that reached our ears and no sign of any crime rings. Really Miss, the most action we've seen is the little girl with sticky fingers."

Cadwallader placed her quill back in the ink well and leaned forward looking concerned. "Girl? What girl?"

"Cappie Garland's friend. All we know is that her name is Serena Scoresby and that her mother was made an Example, if you catch my drift."

"Example?"

"Oh, the local Enforcers went to the other side so you probably wouldn't know this. The local Death Eater thugs killed her mother to prove a point to the locals almost two months before the war ended. Selene Scoresby was the writer and publisher of a pamphlet speaking out against the government and You-Know-Who. Both in good measure I might add." Bennett took a deep breath to calm his pounding heart. "One day the Death Eaters somehow caught on to her activities and dragged her out in broad daylight in front of her shop and quite a few witnesses. Selene had her head blown open by some Death Eater. Her little girl and the homeless children boarding with them saw the whole thing."

Cadwallader looked ill, her eyes looked glassy and her skin seemed to have developed a greenish tinge. She could see the whole scene in her mind's eye. The blood covering the street. The little girl screaming for her mother. And she felt horrible.

"If you manage to catch this kid she'll most likely be put in one of the new Magical Children's Homes for war orphans. Does she have any living relatives?"

Bennett tilted his head looking confused about the question. "No, none that we know of anyway, Selene was a half-blood and we have no idea who her father is. Why are you so curious anyway?"

The young woman rubbed her temple exasperatedly. "Those homes are a new project and with the economy in the horrible shape it is now they're going to be improperly funded for all the stories I've heard. I want this kid to have another option. I think the Ministry owes her that much." She paused, "I want to find out who murdered her mother too. It's pretty sick those kids had to see that."

"I'll see what we can do about that Miss. I take it this is my team's new project?"

Cadwallader nodded a grim smile crossing her lips. "You find Serena Scoresby and I'll see if anybody at the office is interested in taking in a girl with sticky fingers."

Oo0Oo0

Audrey's fingers flew through the folders in the filing cabinet in the workroom with almost unmatched speed. Her blue eyes scanning the stock lists she pulled almost as quickly as she pulled out her alphabetized and newly color coded folders. It had taken her, Lucia, and Cappie just under two weeks to get all of their stock compiled in to this new improved system. Now it would no longer be a complete hassle to find out what they needed to order more copies of, and also what ingredients Septimus required that month. Audrey mentally thanked John's friend from the Minister's office for the color coding idea.

"Aud, I need to know what happened last night…" Septimus groaned as he took his feet off his desk. "Or at least what I drank…"

"You drank a lot of alcohol, same as usual," Audrey replied as she continued to look through the lists. "I know that because you were absolutely smashed. And I could tell by the fact that you were singing that song from the radio. And that you tried to marry me off to the neighbor who runs that joke shop."

"Sorry about that."

"At least it wasn't the homeless guy this time."

"Septimus! Audie! There's some old bloke here looking for you!" Cappie shouted from the shop counter. Audrey shot up and banged her head on a cabinet drawer. Septimus groaned as he removed a wet washcloth from his face and put his glasses on. He was still recovering from the drinks he had with the neighbor boy the night before. He stood, grabbed his cane and staggered out the door. Still rubbing her head Audrey followed suit.

Her eyes blurry and her head throbbing like mad Audrey could just barely distinguish an older man dressed in, despite the times, long black robes with silver trim along the edges. His matching cloak had a finely patterned silver clasp with a green gem in the center. Like Septimus the man was using a cane, though Audrey had always suspected it was for show. The man's face was lined with age and what was left of his hair was almost completely gray. Cavan Toft's large handlebar mustache was still as stupid looking as she remembered.

Cavan Toft was the Head Sorcerer of the Research Society which offered funding to researchers in many different fields. The Head Sorcerer was usually decided by the votes of the seven Sorcerers beneath him. Audrey had a pretty good feeling those votes were based on how much money the aspiring Head Sorcerer had in the bank. But she couldn't prove that theory since she had no idea what went on in the Society's headquarters, seeing as Septimus' application for funding had been denied for years. The society's excuse was that his all of his topics of research were very widespread and vague with little to no connection to the other. Part of Septimus' theory was that the number seven had a connection with magical power itself. It made perfect sense to Audrey anyway.

"Hello Septimus," Toft drawled, "It's a pleasure to see you all in such… excellent health."

Audrey hugged herself self-consciously; she was too thin to actually be considered healthy at this point. Nobody else she knew was much better.

"Hello Toft." Septimus said stiffly clutching his walking stick so tightly his knuckles were turning white. "What do you want?"

Toft chuckled, "I just came to see how my former partner was doing. Is it a crime to visit an old friend?"

"Steal more of my theories more likely." Septimus replied dryly. Cappie glanced from Toft to Septimus like he was watching volleys at tennis match.

"It's a competitive business, Septimus, every researcher for himself." Toft's smile widened, "I also wanted to talk to your assistant, Andrea."

Audrey looked up quickly. "It's Audrey."

Toft continued, ignoring Audrey's correction. "I want to offer Miss Callahan, a position in my new facility near Godric's Hollow." He was looking at Audrey now. "A facility that will, hopefully, go deep into the possibility of the existence of a source of magical power. The same thing I believe you're looking into at the moment." Septimus' teeth clenched and his eyes seemed to bulge behind his glasses. Audrey cringed, remembering the last time Septimus had looked at someone like that. It was during their escape from the Ministry and a Death Eater thug had called her a Mudblood. The result was not something pleasant. "I can pay you more than what you're being paid now. I hope that will factor in your decision, Miss Callahan."

"Causey, _Audrey Causey_." Audrey stated firmly through her teeth. "Who said I'm going to even think about working for you? Because the day I work for you is the day hell freezes over."

Septimus laughed loudly, his temper seeming to subside as Toft reeled backwards, appalled. "H-how can you refuse? Not many Second year Apprentice Researchers are able to translate these documents with such accuracy. I'm offering you a future for someone of your gifts. Not to just be some mere shopkeeper for a drunken old fool!"

"Hey, I resent that!" Septimus' remark fell on deaf ears as Cappie began to laugh. "And I'm not drunk, I'm hungover."

"I could pay you more than room and board in a drafty attic. You would be sharing a community boarding house with the other assistants with steady payment every Friday!"

"Toft you pretentious prick, this place used to be a boarding house back in the day," Septimus' comment fell on deaf ears.

"I could put you to work with a real researcher."

Audrey felt a calm coldness consume her. She met Toft's eyes with an icy penetrating stare that caused the older man to take another step back.

"I'm not interested in working for a thief and a liar. I'm very happy working here. Now, get out of this shop or I will throw you out."

"Another day perhaps?" Toft asked shakily as his eyes darted between Septimus and Audrey. Both stared back calmly. He regained his composer. "Maybe we could share information about our theories sometime, Septimus?"

Toft turned and walked out of the shop as Audrey's hand moved subconsciously towards her wand. The door closed as Audrey covered the door in a sheet of ice.

"Lucky bastard."

"Nice shot," Septimus commented waving his walking stick causing the ice to melt. "I think I need to go for a walk after that visit."

Audrey had a vague idea why Septimus was going out for a sudden walk. She wasn't about to stop him from giving Toft a piece of his mind. He wanted to hear more about Septimus' theories that were glossed over in his applications and people from the outside the Septenary trying to learn about his theories upset him. That question from Cavan Toft just led to unpleasantness for all parties involved.

A few minutes later Audrey heard the sounds of a commotion in the streets. Cappie opened the door wide to find a couple of old men trying to hex each other with a crowd gathering around to watch and cheering loudly.

"Sub-par!" Septimus shouted as his spell barely missed Toft's head. "The only sub-par man I see here is at the other end of my wand!"

Toft dodged using his greater mobility and stood back up quickly sending a bright white hex over Septimus' head. Septimus blocked stopped it from hitting the crowd behind him by snapping his walking stick towards the ground, disintegrating the spell. This caused him to lose his balance and almost fall over, he caught himself in time and shot a dull violet light towards his opponent.

"Come now Septimus, we're both men of reason. Surely we can come to some understanding and help one another."

"So you can take credit for all of my hard work again! Like hell!" There was a loud booming sound as Septimus swung his walking stick down at an angle and threw Toft backwards as the crowd erupted in cheers.

Cappie leaned over the stair railing shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight. "My mum told me not to watch stuff like this, but I've never seen magic like that before."

Audrey followed Cappie's lead and leaned over the railing as well. "You didn't think the old man just sat in there and read books all day did you?"

"Um…"

"Don't answer that."

The old men continued their duel, dodging and throwing spells at the other that were not commonly used among the dueling community. Septimus was prevented from dodging spells much of the time due to his bad leg. But he was using some extremely creative methods to stop Toft's spells in their tracks. Toft on the other hand, was extremely predicable in Audrey's opinion. She knew exactly where he was going to step to avoid the spells Septimus threw at him, but Septimus couldn't hit him because of the fact after he cast his spells he would have to regain his footing.

"Alright Cappie, I'm going to tell you something you'll find interesting." Audrey said as Cappie turned his face towards Audrey but had his eyes trained on the duelists. "You can know every spell there is, but if someone else knows the counter-spell you have no chance."

"That's it?" Cappie asked as Audrey trailed off as she watched Septimus hit Toft with a tickling charm.

"No, you can also tell a good duelist by looking at their feet."

As the crowd began to take bets and money changed hands there was a voice that belonged to the sole source of law enforcement in the Alley.

Celeste Cadwallader drew her wand quickly and stunned both Toft and Septimus; neither of them had seen her enter the space in the middle of the crowded street. With both men laid out on the ground Celeste removed her spell and whipped out a pad of paper and a self-inking quill. With a wave of her wand the papers detached themselves from the pad and stuck themselves to the men's chests.

"What the devil is this?" Septimus asked loudly, examining the paper.

"A fine," Celeste replied drily, "for disturbing the peace."

Oo0Oo0

Audrey observed the crowd of people gathered at the Sneezing Snitch. She was sitting alone at a table, waiting for John and Lucia to get there from work. Lucia had just started working at the Ministry as a security guard. Audrey was excited to hear about the kind of chaos she was causing.

She looked up from the wood-grained table as a man sat down next to her. Russell Bennett gave her a bright smile then looked over his shoulder nervously before turning his attention back to Audrey. He had a right to be nervous, some people were still not too happy about the "Booze Bust".

"Do you think they'll forget about that anytime soon?" Russell asked as Scully leered at him over the bar before going back to his conversation with Celeste.

"No, I know I won't." Audrey replied as Russell shrunk down into his seat. She reached into the basket in the center of the table for one of the rolls Ellie had supplied for the meeting. "Abandon all hope of hearing the end of that while we're at it."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence." Russell replied dryly as he too picked a roll out of the basket. "Is it true Lucia decided to work at the Ministry? Did she get a job?"

"Yes and yes, they actually have Lucia working _security_!" Russell almost choked on his roll. "I'm not joking."

"Even after that…" Audrey nodded her smile widening.

The steady tapping of heels alerted Audrey to Lucia's arrival. She pulled out the chair next to Audrey and sat down. "What is so surprising, me getting a job, or me getting a job for the government?"

"Both." Audrey replied with a cheeky grin as Lucia elbowed her in the ribs. "Why work for the Ministry anyway? I doubt jobs are scarce enough to willing work in that little piece of hell."

Lucia flagged down Scully for a butterbeer before turning her attention back to Russell and Audrey, propping her chin on her hand. "My parents are walking in and out of that place trying to place to seeds of influence with the new administration. I want to see how that turns out. Besides, if they get thrown out for being an annoyance I want a front row seat to my mother yelling at somebody else for not behaving like a proper young woman. A good quarter of the Ministry's desk security are witches. My mother will have a fit."

"Show me the memory if your prediction comes true, would you? Merlin knows I need a laugh."

"No problem Audrey," Lucia looked up at the ceiling pensively, lost in thought.

Lucia had left everything behind to help Septimus and Audrey relocate muggleborns out of the county. The sole heir to a small fortune that promised her a stable life. All she had to do was stay in her parent's good graces. And settle into a life of fancy parties, marriage, and other things she did not want out of her life. Lucia was onboard immediately with her estranged uncle and best friend's idea considering it meant she would be able to take control over her own life. When the operation was discovered and the leaders brought to a twisted form of justice, Lucia's parents promptly disowned her. Audrey was unsure if Lucia was happier living the way she was now.

Audrey's relationship with her own father was anything but stable. She had grown up with her father's parents who raised her while her father fell off the map…

She shook her head pulling herself out of her thoughts. Audrey had no time for such sad personal recollections; she did not need any more of those keeping her up at night. She kept waking up at night remembering the happy times, the bittersweet things, and the pure terror underneath it all. Every night now she woke up with her face wet with tears and trembling in terror.

And Cappie, Audrey had found the boy sleep walking on more than one occasion already. He had talked in his sleep more than once as well. He said the most terrible things. Cappie screamed for his parents every night, and his godfather every other.

"Hey Bennett, you find Scully's goods yet?"

"Take a look around and tell me what do you think John?" Russell shot back spreading his arms to draw John's attention to the rest of the pub as Audrey leaned away from Russell and was only prevented from falling by Lucia's arm. "Scully struck a deal with the delivery guy to get his shipment early." Russell's tone changed to something softer and less agitated. "Want a drink to prove it?"

"No thank you, I don't want to sleep on the couch if Ellie finds out I had one. I sure do want one though, work has been absolutely hellish. The first chance I get, I'm getting out Ministry. And you know what the first thing I'm going to do right after I hand in my resignation papers?" John was speaking loudly in agitation as he sat down and leaned back in the chair his hands behind his head. "I am going to fulfill a dream I've had since they had dementors try to suck out my soul. I'm going to tell them all to kiss my arse, strip down to my birthday suit and walk out. Let those high and mighty bureaucrats try and stop me!" John turned bright neon pink as everybody in the pub cheered loudly. Audrey looked up at the bar to find Celeste Cadwallader scowling in their direction as a couple of men nearby clasped John's shoulders heartily causing him to place all four legs of his chair back on the floor.

"You tell them bloody politicians boy!" One man shouted.

Audrey peered up towards the bar to see Celeste standing, her feet placed at shoulder width and her wand pointed at her throat. "_Sonoaras!_ I trust you all know why you're here-"

"To pick up flirting tips from you and Scully!" Lucia shouted causing the accused parties to redden visibly. Russell stood up and shook his fist in mock-anger shouting "You traitor!" playfully as Audrey wolf-whistled loudly.

Scully didn't miss a beat, "At least you're studying people who are actually getting somewhere. Unlike Russell and the object of his affections for the past _two years_!" John's forehead hit the table as he and half the pub began to roar with laughter. "Asked the girl out yet?"

Russell sat down and folded his hands on the table as his face turned a deep scarlet.

Celeste rolled her eyes as she tried to regain their attention, "Okay, order in the court! Lay off the man, we have more pressing things then Bennett's love life. As amusing as it is…" Celeste paused to allow the laughter to die off. "Alright then, we're going to try something different for your shifts. Groups asking questions catch unwanted attention, but I don't want any of you walking around alone either. All of you will be assigned a partner and given a schedule for your watch shifts. Rejoice, Mondays for Selwyn and Causey." Audrey looked over to find Russell looking disappointed.

"Another reason to hate Mondays," Lucia muttered as she drummed her long manicured nails on the tabletop.

"Tuesday, Howard and Givens, Wednesdays Quincey and Fowler, Thursdays for Townsend and Bennett…"

Audrey stopped paying attention at that point.

Oo0Oo0

There was an unattended jar sitting on an abandoned stall next door to Bennett's shop. The jar was filled with fire giving the area around it an eerie glow. Audrey couldn't help but notice it was the one bit of light on this street. She couldn't help but stare for a few moments longer than necessary.

Then it was gone. There was a figure that looked like a young girl disappearing into the shadows.

Audrey turned back to the group of laughing people walking up the road behind her. She caught glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye, Audrey turned around in time to see a shape to large to be Serena creeping on into the night.

Oo0Oo0

_**Author's Note: Bah, I went camping. Brought my good friend the laptop and typed out at least 1,000 words of another chapter. I'm lucky if I can do 500 words a sitting during school days. But, Spring Break approaches with all the bright opportunities that follow. **_


	12. Riot

**Chapter Twelve: Riot**

_May 30__th__ 1998_

Under Audrey Causey's bed is a box. This box contains letters that she never sent. She always changed her mind as she addressed the envelops for the post. The letters always ended up inside of this box. The one currently sitting in her lap as she shifted through the contents, something she didn't do often, once a year at best.

_Dear Aran,_

_It's Audrey again, remember, your… well, you know. You wouldn't recognize me now, you didn't recognize me when I found you after all these years ago either. You're probably happier this way, I know I am. If only for your sake, you never had to worry about me or anyone else during the war. A war you wouldn't know about. It's beyond your realm of comprehension. I wish I could tell you everything. But I'm bound by laws and considering you have no place in my world, I could be arrested (again) and you would have some rather unpleasant visitors. I believe you would wish to avoid that considering how bad it would be for business._

_Sincerely,_

_Audrey_

The letter was one of many to a man whose choices had marked her life. These were things Audrey couldn't fix; she was part of the unraveling of his life in his mind. He was a hotshot detective now. Audrey would occasionally find his name in the paper when she went into London for a book. It made her sad, that she could never be a part of his life.

_'It's for the best.' _Audrey thought as she tucked the blanket around her legs as she sat next to the newly repaired shop window of the Septenary. _'Never wanted me anyway.'_

Oo0Oo0

One could call the word mudblood many things, rude, offensive, even a smear upon many wizards and witches good names. But to those who had survived the Muggleborn Registry, mudblood was a source of pride. Proof, even, that they would survive and live as they had before, only now with the consciousness that would help them stop an injustice like that from occurring again.

That was why Audrey was proud to have the word carved into the shop front. What she wasn't happy about was the message

'_M-U-D-B-L-O-O-D-S and B-L-O-O-D-T-R-A-I-T-O-R-S are T-H-I-E-V-E-S of our magical secrets.'_

Septimus had a real fit when Lucia dragged him out of the study to have a look. Audrey and Cappie followed to see what all the fuss was about and they found that message and a few passersby muttering worriedly as they read the words engraved into the shop front.

"I can't seem to remember who I pissed off that badly." Septimus muttered as he ran his hand over the words slowly. "They've been spelled in; it'll take some time to get it out even with help."

Audrey pulled her wand out of her bathrobe pocket, her hair was still wet and soapy from the shower she had been dragged out of by Lucia's shouts. "How long do you think?" Audrey twirled her wand between her fingers.

"Long enough to annoy me. Especially if we want to be sure this doesn't happen again."

"What are you going to do?" Cappie asked as he ran his hand over the M in mudblood. "Wouldn't a few simple protection charms be enough?"

"It would normally, but we upset a lot of magically powerful people during the war. And this stuff is laced with dark magic. Possibly so the friends of the person who defiled my shop can find it later." Septimus paused, "Besides, I'm a firm believer in unconventional methods of self-defense."

Lucia crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Well, this is going to be fun."

Septimus smiled, "Yes, Lucia, I think it is. Audrey, there's a book on my desk in the study. Could you go and get it for me, please?" Audrey ran inside to retrieve the book Septimus asked for.

Oo0Oo0

That incident occured that morning. It had taken just under two hours to remove the message.

The chair creaked as Audrey pushed it back and forth with her slipper clad feet. She was absorbed by each letter as she recalled her age when she wrote each one. Audrey was completely absorbed so she never heard the footsteps walking up behind her.

"Hey, who's Aran?"

Audrey shoved the letter back into the box as she whipped around to find the grey eyes of Cappie Garland staring back at her brimming with curiosity. "Why do you want to know?"

Cappie's nose wrinkled, "You've written a lot of letters to the guy. Ex-boyfriend maybe?" Septimus and Lucia looked up from where they were sitting by the fireplace.

"No," Audrey said, clutching the box closer to her body.

"Um, okay, is this Aran bloke a relative? Like an _uncle_? Wait! Is he your _brother_? Do you have a brother?" Cappie seemed to be enjoying himself. Shame Audrey wasn't. "Scratch that, is Aran your _dad_? Then why would you call him by his first name?"

Septimus stopped the interrogation quickly after that. "Enough, boy. If she doesn't want to tell you then she doesn't have to. Now, leave Audrey alone."

Audrey gave Septimus a grateful smile as Cappie crossed his arms in front of his chest. Turning her attention back to the box, Audrey resumed looking over the letters as Cappie walked over to the chair next to the fireplace and flopped down heavily. Audrey glanced out the window for a moment and noticed a small mob of people running up the Alley towards the Leaky Cauldron. The sight alone was strange. What made it stranger was the much larger group that followed. Audrey stood up quickly and tried to get a better look at what was going on.

The larger group passed by the Septenary, the size cut in half when some stopped and began to throw and array of hexes and jinxes into the crowd of black robed Death Eaters that followed. Audrey's eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly as spells lit the street in a multicolored display of power. Cappie and Lucia's presence behind her was barely noticed as she took her wand from the windowsill. The three of them screamed as a hex strayed off its course and hit the window. In that brief span of time, Audrey thought the window would shatter. It didn't, Septimus' enchantments held true.

"You lot get away from there!" Septimus shouted as he hobbled over towards them and pulled Cappie back by the back of his night shirt. Septimus looked out the window while knocking Lucia and Audrey's shins to get them moving. "It was only a matter of time… Lucia, go upstairs and shut the binds, turn off the lights, and come straight back here. Audrey, take care of the downstairs windows. Cappie, go grab those files on my desk and that bottle of firewhiskey." The three of them ran off to take care of their respective tasks as Septimus took up position by the front door. The first line of defense.

Audrey yanked the curtains closed, forgetting about her letter box that now lay on the floor next to the rocking chair. She remembered it when she tripped over it and almost pulled the curtains down on top of her in her haste. Audrey stuffed the box into her magically enlarged pocket, she wasn't about to lose it. She finished the last window as Cappie ran out of the office files and alcohol in hand. Septimus conjured a backpack to put them in and managed grab and throw Audrey's trench coat over the boy's shoulders. Cappie looked up at the older man nervously, Septimus was not really known for spontaneous displays of kindness and concern. He treated his employees well and that was about it.

Septimus seemed to catch on to Cappie's suspicions. "You'll be here longer if you get sick or something boy." Cappie seemed to accept this response as he put on the coat and threw the bag over his shoulders.

The door suddenly flew open and John and Ellie Townsend barely avoided being hexed by Septimus. John slammed the door quickly behind him as Ellie cooed to the screaming Junior. John turned around and surveyed the scene. "Don't bother holing yourselves up in here! Get out to the Leaky Cauldron and head into muggle London!"

The room erupted in chaos. "Why not use the floo?" Audrey asked as Lucia thundered down the stairs.

"I think those thugs have people on the inside. Shut down the damn floo system in the alley! Ours isn't working, neither are our neighbors. People are getting out of the shops and to the Leaky Cauldron to get out of here! So let's get moving!" John peered through the door window while grasping for Ellie's hand.

"We can at least check ours, can't we?" Lucia asked as she drew her wand and stood next to the fireplace. She took a pinch of powder from the vase atop the mantle and tossed it into the hearth. The green flames rose and died quickly. "Merlin's saggy left…!"

"I agree completely with that statement, Lucia, but now's not the time." Septimus cut her off before turning back to John. "We're going to make a run to that joke shop across the street and hold our ground if we can. Try not to run with the mob, and if you fall people will probably run you over. Cappie stay with Lucia and Audrey, and don't do anything stupid." The older man paused. "Johnny-boy, open the door."

John opened the door to let the sound of screaming and chaos coming from the street. John and Ellie took off through the crowd where Audrey lost sight of them quickly. She only started running when Septimus poked her in the back with his cane. Audrey felt completely detached as she gripped her wand tightly in her hand Cappie following closely behind her. Pushing her way through the crowd of people as curses flew past her past her head was no easy feat. Audrey almost tripped as she stumbled over a man lying in the streets. She looked down quickly and found him to be clad in Death Eater robes. Audrey managed to step on his hand as she leapt up the steps to the Wheeze and grabbed the door handle. Audrey looked back behind her to see if Cappie and Lucia were with her. Cappie bumped into Audrey from behind a couple of seconds later.

"I'm sorry, Aud! I lost Lucia when we got out! I don't know where she is! I'm sorry!" Audrey pulled Cappie in front of her so that some protection could be offered against any stray hexes. The door was locked. A strangled cry escaped Audrey's throat as she shook the doorknob and pounded relentlessly on the door.

"Open the door! Open the door, please!"

The door suddenly swung open and two pairs of hands pulled them inside. Audrey slammed the door behind her and leaned back against it to keep herself upright each breath tight in her throat and chest. Her nails dug into the grain of the wooden door.

"Audrey? Are you okay? Audie?"

It sounded like Cappie. She just couldn't be sure right now. Her grey-blue eyes looked in the direction the voice was coming from. The trench coat was far too big for the scrawny child; it hung loosely off his thin frame as he struggled to free his hands from the too long sleeves. Audrey nodded as he brushed his dark hair out of his eyes.

"That's good, maybe you should let go of the door then."

"Hmm, door? Oh, right…" Audrey stepped away from the door slowly. "I'm okay…"

"Nice slippers, Causey." Audrey looked up to find two men standing in front of the two looking at her and Cappie. The second man was that bureaucrat from before. She didn't think she had gotten his name. "You two okay?"

"Yes, we're fine George." Audrey replied as she creped slowly towards the window stepping over stray boxes of day dream charms. "Nice to see you standing upright by the way."

George looked grim; Audrey paid no mind as she watched the chaos out in the street. A man fell backwards his back arched as a white light felled him. An older witch was doing crossing wands with a Death Eater twice her size before a stray curse knocked her to the ground. There was Scully and Russell tag teaming a Death Eater with stunners. Audrey's hands clenched tightly as Russell was knocked to the ground and hit with a torture curse. His screams shook the windows.

Audrey was trembling in anger. She whipped around and ran for the door, "Cappie stay here." Wand in hand Audrey swung the door open and ran out into the street.

As she entered a duel with the Death Eater torturing Russell, Cappie faced George and asked, "Mister, do you have any fireworks?" The taller of the two men ran out the door.

"In the back." George followed while Cappie ran towards the back of the joke shop.

Oo0Oo0

There was something exhilarating about dueling. Every heartbeat could be the last. Every step could lead to an unpleasant end. But perhaps it was just the general feeling that there was nobody else in the world but one and their opponent. Audrey leapt backwards as a pink light hit the ground in front of her. Stepping forward and swinging her wand up, she hit the Death Eater in the chest with a bat-bogey hex. The Death Eater staggered for a moment before Audrey turned him into a bulldog.

She chuckled before turning to face Russell who was staggering to his feet using Scully's shoulder to support himself. He gave a low groan as his knee gave way beneath him. Audrey placed his arm over her shoulders and helped Scully move him away from the action. Audrey and Scully were casting protection charms as they ducked and dodged the spells coming from all directions until they made it to the doorstep of an open shop. Scully kicked the door open and dragged Russell inside while Audrey ran back out into the fray to try and find her friends.

Audrey leapt over the mutilated body of a Death Eater downed by a reducto curse that had blown him apart. She didn't stop to see if his hand was attached to his body when she landed on it. It was something people just didn't think about.

_'Expulso!' _Audrey thought as she hit a Death Eater in the stomach as she ran past him. She didn't spare him a second thought as she stunned another one in the back.

The Battle of Hogwarts was nowhere near this tame. This was just a group of disgruntled purists who found satisfaction in causing unsuspecting people pain. At the Hogwarts battle Audrey, Lucia, and John had found themselves cornered when a wall fell in. There was very little room to move about for strategic purposes against the Death Eaters who had them cornered. Here, there was enough room to duck, dodge, and destroy one's opponents, as Septimus would put it. Merlin's pants, where was he?

Stopping short, Audrey's eyes darted around the street. There were shops burning nearby, Audrey recognized most as those that were owned and operated by Muggle-borns. There was an Apothecary one that had a Muggle-born working full-time as an Apprentice.

The Septenary would be fine. Septimus owned the place and he was a Pureblood. Audrey's mind began to hum with active thoughts. Septimus was a blood-traitor who left the store mainly to Audrey's watch. Audrey was a Muggle-born. She knew where Septimus was now.

Turning back into the heart of the mob, Audrey hit Death Eaters she crossed with curses that she was sure were not entirely Ministry approved and knew were difficult to heal in this country.

Oo0Oo0

Wasn't right in the thick of things where Celeste Cadwallader had always wanted to be? Yes.

Celeste had run out of the Leaky Cauldron at the first blood-curling scream she had heard from the streets. Fuzzy purple bathrobe and her thin sleepwear. She had forgotten her shoes and couldn't quite bring herself to care. Wand drawn Celeste faced the crowd of people running from the burning shops. She cast a shield charm around herself and the crowd gave her a wide berth as they felt the presence of the magic.

Celeste ran foreword through the crowd as they parted like the Red Sea. This could not be good at all. If this was some sort of demonstration gone wrong Celeste was going forget the arrests and just knock the idiots around. When she reached the source of the commotion at the other end of the alley, Celeste found herself eye to eye with a horrifying sight that made her blood run cold.

The black robes and masks of the Death Eaters had been things that had haunted her dreams since Scrimgoer's 'resignation' from the Ministry. She had met Thicknesse one time on her first day at work and he never seemed the type to want to become Minister. Or serve He-Who-Must-Not-Named. Celeste was rather surprised to find known Death Eaters prowling around the floor of her department. Celeste had found herself having nightmares for a week. Then they started picking up suspected rebels and half-breeds. She tried not to think about what happened to the Muggle-borns.

There was a commotion to the right of her. Turning her head towards the shop she found a familiar face protecting a young woman and what appeared to be her child that she was holding in her arms. It took Celeste a moment to realize that the man was John Townsend and the woman was his wife, Ellie.

"Die like the animal you are you filthy Mudblood!" The Death Eater shouted as a flash of light threw John backwards and into the wall behind him. Ellie screamed as her wand was knocked out of her hand by a disarming spell.

Celeste had seen enough. "Expeliarmus! Stupefy!" The Death Eater hit the ground as both wands flew out of his hands. Celeste calmly pocketed the Death Eater's wand and returned Ellie's wand to her as she knelt next to her fallen husband. "I believe this is yours." She knelt down as well placing two fingers on John's neck to check for a pulse. "He's alive, but you better leave immediately. I'll escort you and your family to the Leaky Cauldron, Mrs. Townsend."

"Thank you… Um… It's Cadwallader right? Celeste Cadwallader?" Ellie replied as Celeste cast a large shield charm around the group and levitated John into the air.

"Yes, I believe your husband has complained about me on more than one occasion," Celeste replied as she led Ellie through the crowd.

Ellie blushed as she held her child closer to her body.

Oo0Oo0

On the top steps of the Septenary there was a duel taking place. Septimus Lowell was fighting two Death Eaters who had him backed against the shop door underneath a perilously hanging sign. Successfully stunning one the force of the spell caused the old man to collide with the door, his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose.

"Filthy blood-traitor," One masked man said. "Trying to stop the rise of our new order."

"And succeeding," Septimus replied coolly as he took his walking stick in both hands and lunged forward, jamming the carved piece of wood into the Death Eater's belly. An orange light blew the Death Eater backwards down the steps. Septimus staggered backwards against the door as he attempted to regain his balance. There were days he really disliked his blasted leg. He turned his face up to find another Death Eater running up the stairs. Faceless and remorseless. Septimus felt his feet get lifted off the ground and into the door behind him.

"_Crucio!_"

Pain. Like being hacked away by an ax. Septimus screamed. It suddenly stopped and he remained slumped on the ground. Septimus then reached for the flask of Ogden's finest he had hanging off his belt. Unhooking the clasp from his belt and opening it, Septimus smiled slightly. He promptly flung the contents at the Death Eater and screamed the strongest fire spell at his disposal and watched the spark light the man's robes. The Death Eater ran away as he tried to put out the bright fire rising quickly up his frame.

Septimus chuckled as he rose to his feet. The man was immediately flung back into the shop door with another torture curse. He was silenced when the perilously hanging sign over his head, fell. Knocking him unconscious.

Oo0Oo0

Audrey leapt onto the back of the Death Eater on the Septenary's steps her wand jammed into his throat. "Leave him alone!" Audrey screamed as she pulled the man backwards. The man staggered, his arms flailing as he tried to regain his balance. He failed; the two fell down the stairs.

Her breath wasn't coming. Audrey's lungs screamed for the oxygen she wasn't receiving. Bloody hell, this guy was heavy. Her head felt like it had split in two, Audrey felt her eyes start to water. Then Audrey felt the weight on her chest suddenly disappear as the burly Death Eater rolled off of her body. Her eyes got larger as she found the Death Eater's wand in her face. Audrey's wand was lying by the Septenary's steps.

"You little bitch; I'm going to send you to hell."

"Come with me." Audrey wheezed. If she was going to die, she was going out in a blaze of smart-arsery that would make the old man proud.

Audrey paid no mind to the green glowing wand tip. She had been prepared to die since the war started. Some would say it was sick, to be honest, it was a necessity. Well, at least she had her will in the box in her pocket. Somebody would search her body for means of identification when all of this was over.

Suddenly, the light disappeared and something that appeared to be a squirrel took the Death Eater's place. Audrey blinked as the squirrel ran over her legs and into the chaos.

"Are you okay?" a voice shouted growing closer to where Audrey was inching towards the shop steps for her wand. Audrey ignored the voice; her fingertips brushed the piece of wood gently. The Death Eaters were probably going to come back. Her fear was consuming her and clouding her judgment of the situation.

Audrey stayed low to the ground to avoid the curses flying over her head. Her wand clutched in her hand tightly as her eyes darted around the violence around her. When a movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, Audrey's wand rose quickly and almost fired before she realized it was that bloody bureaucrat again. As much as Audrey wanted to fire her wand at the representative of the people who had put her and numerous others through hell, she couldn't bring herself to do it to this man.

"Are you okay?" he asked again. There was a multitude of bright lights resembling a dragon coming from behind the man.

Audrey's eyes widened. "Get down!" She grabbed the collar of the man's shirt and dragged him to the ground as shouts, screams, and the barely audible laughter of two children coming from the joke shop across the street tore through the street. Cappie was the only person she knew for sure was at the shop, perhaps Serena had run in to get out of the fray as well.

No time to think about who was in the Wheeze or not. Audrey looked around quickly to check for Death Eaters before she stood up again, her wand at the ready position. The man followed looking around as well. Now, all Audrey had to do was grab the Septimus and get out of her. Having no idea where Lucia was at in this mess really narrowed her options for her next move. And she couldn't go and drag Cappie into this mess again for an escape. If Audrey moved him he was a target.

To Audrey's left there was a man in a decorated mask made of a gold colored material standing in front of a nearby shop. Audrey couldn't help but stare. He was a man with a presence that felt strangely familiar to her. Only colder, more haunting, and it made Audrey tremble silently. His movements to the Death Eaters seemed to be consistent with his orders, whatever they may be. One of the Death Eaters nodded and a bright orange flame shot out of his wand.

The Septenary was burning.

Audrey shouted as she broke away from the man's side and ran up the stairs to reach where Septimus was propped up against the door. Hoisting him up by his underarms to drag him down the steps manually was slow going. Audrey suddenly felt another presence behind her; she whipped around expecting another Death Eater only to find the man again. He threw Septimus' arm over his shoulders.

"It's time to go!"

Audrey nodded as bright orange flames burst out of the Septenary's windows. As she followed the man through the crowd of newly arrived Aurors, Audrey looked back at the burning building one final time. Everything she and Septimus had worked for was gone.

Oo0Oo0

_**Author's note: Okay, I know. I am a horrible human being. But my plan is coming together. Tell me how horrible in a review.**_


	13. A New Plan

**Chapter Thirteen: A New Plan**

_May 31__st__ 1998_

_"You can put that book away, kid."_

_Audrey looked up from her seat by the fireplace, the flames crackling loudly. It was a quiet Christmas Eve and the researchers of the Septenary were keeping themselves busy with their projects. Audrey was the first employee the Septimus had that lasted longer than seven days. She had been working over her breaks from school during her seventh year. _

_"The answers you're looking for, you won't find in there."_

_"I'm not looking for anything," Audrey said softly. _

_Septimus looked grim, "I have my doubts. That's the same look I had on my face when I was sorting through my life in my foolish youth. I won't bore you with the details, but my mentor had to beat some basic common sense about magic back into my head." Audrey tilted her head slightly. Septimus sighed, "Many have tried to bring back the dead, including myself, but it is one of the truly impossible tasks of the world. So, I suggest you stop wasting your time in such a manner. You have better things to do with it." Audrey looked down at her lap sadly. _

_Audrey looked down at her lap sadly. "You know… I always thought, deep down, that I could use my magic to bring someone back. Someone that was loved very much and I never got to meet. I thought that if I could study, learn, and become as powerful as I could be… We could be a family again." Her eyes felt wet. "It's stupid, but maybe…" _

_"It's not stupid. It's a natural thing, but who are you talking about?"_

O0oO0o

The table was quite comfortable. Almost _too_ comfortable. No, wait, -ouch- a sharp stinging pain shot through her body. She had just rolled into the corner of the table.

'_I want a drink. A cold one.' _

Audrey rolled the opposite direction then she had before. Her eyes slowly opened and she saw her hand lying next to her face. Her forehead resting on the edge of the table gave her a perfect view of the wooden floors beneath her.

'_Last thing I remember is…' _

"_It's time to go!" Peering back over her shoulder to see the fire coming out of the Septenary's windows, both upstairs and down. _

Everything after that seemed rather blurry. Audrey picked herself up and surveyed her surroundings. There were people hunched over the table heads in their hands. One woman was shaking violently as someone, who appeared to be her husband, pulled her into a one armed hug while whispering words of comfort into her ear. Audrey watched them for a moment before rising out of her chair. Wincing as her shoulder cracked loudly.

Stepping softly around dozing bodies as she attempted to find a clock so she could find out what time it was, Audrey stepped over a stray bottle of whiskey as she made her way behind the counter and began poking through a the lost and found box. There had to be at least one watch. So far she had pulled out a woman's high heeled shoe, a man's sock, a piccolo, and a pair of dentures. She could've lived without seeing those.

'_Are people incapable of losing their watches? Wait, where the hell am I?'_

Standing up and looking around at the room instead of the many people situated around the room. The room was bathed in a soft dim light from the candles that were floating strategically by the ceiling. The only candles that were not floating were placed on a table next to the staircase. It appeared that Audrey had found herself in the Leaky Cauldron. If that's where she was, then where were John and Ellie?

Audrey walked back to the center of the room and looked at the faces of every person in the room. These were probably the people who weren't going to abandon their shops by running into Muggle London. They also may not have had any idea how to survive in Muggle London anyway. Audrey knew how, she just wasn't about to be chased off by a people who decided to commit a very obvious hate crime.

Gritting her teeth, Audrey determinedly walked towards the staircase. And was stopped by a voice from behind her.

"Are you looking for someone?"

Audrey turned to face the man and woman she had seen when she had woken up. The woman had lifted her head off of her husband's shoulder and had ceased her shaking.

"Yes," Audrey replied, "I'm looking for a young woman called Ellie Townsend." The pair looked puzzled, "She has wavy brown hair, average height, and probably holding a baby with blonde hair. Ellie owns the local bakery. And I'm also looking for her husband, John. Blonde hair, brown eyes, average height."

The pair shook their heads and apologized for being of little help. There was another voice that caught her attention coming from behind her. The owner of the voice had crept so quietly down the stairs that she had escaped Audrey's notice.

"The whole family's at Saint Mungo's." Celeste Cadwallader said drily as she fastened the clasp on the cloak of her uniform. "John took a pretty nasty hit and his wife refuses to leave his side. It's something I'd find sweet if I was the romantic type."

Audrey bit her tongue, reminding herself that people from the government tended to be heartless, cruel, bastards whose main goals in life consisted of rising in positions of importance in said government.

Celeste continued failing to notice Audrey's expression. "Your perverted friend is checking on the Townsend's place."

A flash of insight shot through Audrey's mind, "And Septimus?"

"I believe he broke out of St. Mungo's," Celeste deadpanned. "I heard he was missing this morning when the Healers did their morning rounds."

Audrey blinked, "Thank you." She then turned to go out into the streets of Diagon Alley.

"Oh, Causey!" Audrey turned, her hand resting on the door handle. "There are Aurors investigating what was happening last night. So stay out of their way."

'_Like I'd want to get involved.' _Audrey smiled at Celeste and walked out into the street.

It smelled like smoke and ash. Completely understandable, Audrey thought as she walked through the street that to all appearances was devoid of life. Especially since there was a white sheet covering the remains of a body in the middle of the street. There were a couple of Aurors in bright green robes standing at, what Audrey believed to be, the head of the corpse. Audrey wasn't sure whether it was the same dismembered body of the Death Eater she had glimpsed last night or one of those who had stayed behind to defend their livelihood. Audrey wasn't about to take a peak under the sheet to find out. She wasn't that curious.

Turning her mind to other thoughts to distract herself somewhat from the bodies that were laying out under the white sheets, was not a very successful strategy. Audrey had developed a rather morbid imagination during her year on the run and it showed up in her nightmares quite often. Those who were burned alive during the raid would suddenly rise from the ashes; arms outstretched crying out and screaming for help. Their faces half melted and skin blacked.

There were two figures that were different from the four who had fallen at that place of safety. These two figures never screamed for help. They cried out for their son.

'_Cappie!' _

Audrey looked towards the Wheeze to find I was still standing and began to run towards the shop. Then she stopped and turned back towards the Septenary.

The only thing left of the Septenary was the blackened frame of the shop and the steps out front where there was a lone figure standing; only having eyes for the wreckage. Audrey looked at it as well from where she stood nearby, memorizing every little detail of her homes skeletal remains. The books were probably the thing that really set off the blaze now that Audrey thought about it.

Audrey walked closer knowing exactly who the figure was and not knowing what she could say. Was there anything she could say? No. But all she could do was be there. After all, this was her home too.

Septimus' grip on the stair railings tightened, seeming to sway back and forth. Audrey walked up the steps behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. His body jerked away.

"Low-life bastards," Septimus growled. "Everything is gone." He readjusted his hold on his cane.

"We can rebuild. Make it bigger and better than before," Audrey's voice trembled. "Everything is going to be just fine.

"I don't think we can. The Septenary's gone everything I worked for, years and years…" Septimus chuckled bitterly prodding some of the ash by his feet with his cane. "Up in smoke."

Audrey stood there quietly.

"During the raid on our headquarters, a lot of those Death Eaters got a good look at our faces. Yours. Mine. John's. Lucia's. If not then, then they did at our trial. Some of them have not been arrested yet. I suggest you take heed to what has happened here and stay on your guard. Don't do anything reckless."

"From what I've seen so far, I think this was just a hate crime with no specific targets in mind. You're reading to deeply into this, Septimus."

"I have no reason to think I'm not."

A silence rose between the two, "So, how's your head?"

"It's been better," Septimus replied coldly as he continued his examination of the shops remains. Audrey noticed his shoulders starting to shake for a moment before he regained his composure. "Over forty years at this place…"

They stood there silently for a moment longer taking in the harsh reality until one of them spoke.

"Go away, Causey." His voice was firm and left no room for questions.

"But-"

"_LEAVE!" _

Audrey took off down the stairs at a dead run as Septimus eased himself onto the step and put his face in his hands.

She didn't stop running until she had reached the Wheeze. Shaking the doorknob fiercely as she banged rapidly on the door. No answer. _'I'm going to get arrested for this. Alohamora!'_ The door swung open_, 'Wow, their security charms suck,'_ and Audrey rushed inside.

There was a crate of empty fireworks next to a couple of empty bottle of Ogden's Finest Firewhiskey. Audrey nudged the bottles with the toe of her foot and walked deeper into the shop. She heard giggling coming from behind the counter. Then another higher pitched laugh joined in. Audrey bent over the counter for a better look, lifting her feet off the ground as she did so.

"D-did you see that stupid Death Eater's face?" Serena laughed slamming her fist on the wooden floor.

"I think the idiot about peed himself!" Cappie laughed loudly as he rested his head on the edge of the counter.

"To heck with that, I think he did!" Both children continued to roar with laughter unaware that Audrey was listening inches above their heads.

"The blokes who run this place are geniuses! That dragon was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life!"

Audrey smiled maliciously, "I'll be sure to tell George you said that."

Both children shot up and simultaneously hit their heads on the underside of the counter. "Ye-ouch!"

"How are you two doing?" Audrey asked politely as she lowered her feet back to the ground. "Didn't get into too much trouble, I hope."

Both children glared at Audrey as they stood up. Serena looked thin; her stringy blonde hair was hanging in her face and she smelled a bit off. She didn't look pleased to see Audrey. Cappie, on the other hand, looked thrilled.

"You're okay!" Cappie threw his arms around Audrey's shoulders pulling her down to his level. The affection took Audrey aback. Cappie had never hugged her before. Audrey hugged him back. Cappie pulled back, "I was starting to think something happened to you! Where's everybody else?"

Audrey smiled, "Let's get out of here and I'll tell you what I know." She looked at Serena and gave her a small smile, "If your friend wants to come she's welcome to."

Serena looked up wearily and shrugged as she followed them both out the door. Audrey glanced at the figure on the Septenary's steps sadly as she locked the door behind them and strolled up the down the street towards Ellie's bakery. Cappie and Serena followed looking around at the mess that had followed the riot the night before. Both children were looking at the investigators with equal parts excitement and grim comprehension.

Due to the children walking behind her Audrey never saw their expressions as she walked along the edges of the shop buildings trying to stay out of the Aurors way. Looking ahead Audrey noticed a blue line that was hovering a couple of inches above the ground. It looked like some kind of anti-trespassing spell. Septimus said they were easy to mess with if you knew how. He never did tell her how he figured that out.

Kneeling down in front of the line, Audrey poked it tentatively with her wand and watched the line glow red for a brief moment then turn back to its regular color. Audrey tossed a piece of gravel that was lying next to her tattered pink bunny slipper over the line and watched it receive an electrical shock of some sort. Cappie whistled as he pulled Audrey's trench coat tighter around him, "Wow, that's some pretty interesting magic."

Audrey nodded as she stood back up as an Auror came running towards them. "That is why I study it Cappie."

"I'm sorry ma'am, but this area is off limits until we can sort out the mess over there." The Auror looked down at her slippers, "Are those-"

"Yes, these are pink bunny slippers." Audrey replied quickly, "I'm sorry for snapping sir, it's just I need to get back there to look for my father."

Cappie and Serena looked confused as the Auror stood his ground while looking at Audrey sympathetically. He appeared thoughtful as his eyes wandered over her disheveled features.

"Please sir, we, that is my stepsister and I, run a shop back there that my father owns." Audrey looked desperate and clutched her arms as a sudden cool wind blew through her. "I want to be sure they're okay because we were all separated last night during the riot." There was no trust or love lost between Audrey and the Ministry at this point. If Audrey told the truth about why she wanted to get back there, then she may not get to find Lucia at all. The story was a familiar one that she had used on two separate occasions before and during the war. In her experience if one was to create a story to get people to sympathize with you, then you had to familiarize yourself with details of the story. The names of one's parents, siblings, and first cousins had the potential to be useful in the right situation. Careers were also helpful. It was also easier to tell a lie if there was some semblance of truth to it. This was one of those times that information would be crucial.

The Auror nodded slowly as he began to lift the anti-trespassing spell, he stopped suddenly as he noticed Cappie and Serena for the first time. "Are those two with you?"

Audrey didn't miss a beat, "Oh, yes! David and Resa are my brother's children."

The Auror looked at the children closely, and then he leaned in close to Audrey's ear and whispered, "They don't look like siblings."

"My brother is a known womanizer sir."

"Okay then," the Auror whipped out a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill, "What is your father's name?"

'_He wants names, okay Audrey, what would you name your first born son?'_

"Winston. Winston Fowler." Audrey replied.

"Brother's name?"

"Aran."

The Auror looked up from the parchment. "That's Irish, isn't it?"

"My mother's from Ireland sir. She wanted her firstborn to have a name from the homeland."

"I see, your stepsister's name please?"

Audrey smiled, "My stepsister's name is Winifred Crawler."

"Your name?"

Audrey paused for a brief heartbeat and said, "I'm Molly." She wasn't giving any personal information to this guy at all. She had switched around birth order a bit, and bluffed the rest, but there was some truth in there. Audrey's grandmother had given her son a name that reminded her of her homeland. And she had been raised by her father's parents which meant her grandmother had taught her the Gaelic language as a child as she had her father before her. Audrey had learned the curses first.

The Auror smiled, "It's a no trespassing zone for a reason but there's a way around the barricade here." He pointed up towards the building next to them. "The upper floors there are connected to the building next door. Just go through there and avoid what few Aurors are on that side of the line and you should be fine."

Audrey smiled brightly, "Thank you very much sir! C'mon you two." They took off towards the building the Auror had pointed them too. Audrey suddenly stopped short and turned back towards the Auror. "We tried to escape with our floo, but it wasn't working for us or any of our neighbors. Do you know why that was?"

The Auror looked grim, "I doubt it was a coincidence Miss Fowler. My superiors' believe there was a sympathizer in the department."

"A sympathizer? What would make you think that?"

"Well, you see, they have complete control over the network. It doesn't take much to watch and shut down connected fireplaces. Really, I believe the system to be quite flawed considering anybody can do this. We'll be looking into it, I promise."

"And that anti-apparation jinxes? What about those?"

"Those will be reinforced. It hindered people's escapes but it's a standard safety procedure for now."

"I see. Thank you for your time sir."

Oo0Oo0

The building was a complete mess on the inside. The building was once an Apothecary where Audrey would go to pick up school supplies back in the day. Now it smelled of smoke, ash, and burning plants. The combination of smells was mildly unpleasant.

Cappie and Serena had dashed up the stairs leading up to the large flat over the shop. Audrey was following no less than five steps behind them. Those two were full of energy; Audrey wasn't going to deny that. When they reached the top Cappie and Serena made sounds of awe and wonder at the plant life that seemed to have thrived during the events of the previous evening, while Audrey looked at the black flowers wearily as she leaned in for a closer examination. The plant itself looked like the cross-breed of some plants Septimus was looking at during her first couple of weeks on the job. Audrey grinned; who knew the stiff, almost prissy shop owner liked to breed illegal plants in his spare time.

Chuckling at the thought of the Apothecary owner sitting at his kitchen table amongst smoking tubes and vials, his goggled eyes leaning in closer towards the plant in front of him prodding at it gently as he went about his hobby, the image seemed odd somehow. It didn't really seem to fit the man at all but the evidence was there. A person could hardly fight the evidence.

The troublesome twosome was already at the other end of the flat pulling open cabinet doors and looking under furniture. Serena pulled open a drawer full of silver utensils that Audrey had never seen before. When the girl attempted to pocket them, Audrey gave her a cold hard stare and she stopped immediately. Cappie watched the scene looking surprised. Audrey would've bet her last galleon that Serena had never put something she had tried to steal back before. They all went to the other shop attached to the flat.

The neighboring shop to the Apothecary was a small antique shop run by the Apothecary owner's younger brother. Nice guy, he couldn't play cards to save his life, but he was a nice guy. There was a whirring device on the counter that held the children enraptured as the spinning silver sphere moved up and down on the pole. Audrey stood behind them and watched as well, it was almost hypnotizing… Audrey blinked rapidly and pulled the children away from the device that they had been staring at for a quarter of an hour.

Audrey looked both ways out into the street before casting a disillusionment charm on Cappie, Serena, and then herself before they walked out into the street. The Auror said they shouldn't have too many problems, but if Audrey had learned anything at all over the past couple of years, it was that one couldn't be too careful. And not to trust the Ministry. But that was another matter entirely.

This was the area that was hit hardest during the riot. Almost every shop in sight had been burned to some degree. Audrey knew a few of those shops that were burned down completely were owned and run by Muggleborns. That was such an obvious shot at the Muggleborn community Audrey felt her jaw clench angrily as her hand held her wand more tightly then was necessary. She felt like she had to do something to find that sympathizer and give him a piece of her mind. Or make him rebuild the shops like a muggle. She couldn't decide which was more appealing.

Turning away from the shop Audrey broke into a steady jog towards Ellie's bakery. Ellie was a half-blood who married a muggleborn. Audrey was going to be surprised if the shop was still standing.

At the end of the Alley, Audrey finally stopped jogging as he arrived in front of the bakery. Removing her charms from her and the children, Audrey then examined the half destroyed building. The spells that John and Ellie had placed on their home barely protected their home and shop. The outside was badly burned, the windows were smashed, and it was easy to see why Ellie and John had taken the risk they had in running through the madness with a baby once Audrey had a look at the inside of the building. Audrey sucked in a breath, the downstairs was where Ellie did her business was completely, and maybe irreversibly destroyed. Audrey wasn't going to go and check the upstairs to check the Townsend's home without someone who was of age to make sure she didn't hurt herself.

"I think Ellie's going to be quite happy, don't you Aud?" The voice sounded rather sarcastic.

Audrey whipped around to find Lucia Selwyn smiling widely, her hand placed arrogantly on her hip. Her long blonde hair looked as disheveled as her sleepwear. Her robe was burned at the seams and smelled like smoke and ash. Upon closer examination of Lucia's face, she had some minor burns and scratches to her high cheekbones.

"What happened to you?"

Lucia shrugged casually, "My dear Death Eater cousin Dominicus and I got into it. It was almost comical really. I met his every curse with the counter curse until one of his mates wised up and tried to kill me. It was fun until then. And you?"

"Well, I wound up right in the thick of the riot," Audrey said as she twirled her wand between her fingers causing sparks to fly out of the tip. "A Death Eater had Septimus backed against the door. He was doing great until the Septenary's sign knocked him unconscious. The Death Eater was about to kill him when I jumped on his back and pulled him down the steps on top of me. I was completely winded, he had his wand in my face and I couldn't move. Suddenly, this man intervenes by turning the Death Eater into a squirrel. He helped me and Septimus get out of there. I never did get his name though."

"Pfft, with our luck you'll see him again." Audrey smiled widely at Lucia's words. "But it'll probably be in another life-or-death situation." Audrey frowned.

"Thanks Lucia, thank you so much."

"Oh, anytime," Lucia waved her hand idly, "By the way Aud, happy birthday!"

Audrey looked at Lucia for a moment, before a look of realization dawned across her face. "I completely forgot, thank you Lucia." Audrey smiled, she felt like she had to, she was nineteen today. Though she never really celebrated her birthday; she just let it go right by her. It was kind of a sad day in her mind.

They all stood in silence for a moment. Listening to the silence that filled the air around them and was slowly consuming them with its unnaturalness, Audrey felt like she needed to say something to escape it but Lucia beat her to the punch.

"Everything's going to be different now, isn't it?"

"Yes," Audrey replied without thinking. Perhaps she had known that since she left the Leaky Cauldron that morning.

"The Septenary is gone, Audrey, what are you going to do now?"

Audrey shrugged, "Get the money together to rebuild, I guess. Our vaults are going to be held until we are cleared officially of our _supposed_ war crimes against the Ministry."

Lucia looked at the sky pensively, "You know, Aud, these days jobs are kind of hard to find. But, I know a place that usually has a lot of job openings."

"I'm not going to work at the Ministry, Lucia. I don't want to make a career out of that special level of hell, which means I'll probably end up in administrative service."

"I'm not talking about a secretarial job Audrey. I'm talking about working a security job at the front desk with me. I need someone I can laugh at the freaks, the workaholics, and the airheads with. I know you don't like what the government's done to you, but, the pay is ridiculously worth the moral destruction you're going to suffer from to do the job."

Audrey looked up at the sky; it was the brightest blue she had ever seen in her life. She felt hopeful if nothing else. Her mind turned to the possibilities of taking a job with the Government Pigs. She could get the money to rebuild the Septenary, hopefully see if she could push up the court date, and find the Death Eater sympathizer.

"I guess I could give it a shot."

Oo0Oo0

"Do you have the documents?"

The man chuckled, the sound echoing behind his golden mask. "Of course, your connections are very well placed, Milady. I knew you had supporters in the Ministry, but not in such a useful department."

"You're a flatterer; I have no need for that." The woman turned her chair away from the window and laid her folded hands on the desk before her. "Now, hand them here. I'm sure those researchers from the Septenary have something for me to work with. After all, the old man's been at it for over forty years now. Surely, he'll have discovered something about what we're looking for." She flipped through the papers as she continued to speak. "I'm quite impressed with the plan you've concocted to get these papers, really I am. Getting what remains of You-know-who's supporters who stayed away from the final battle to burn down the shops run by mudbloods, and keeping them all in Diagon Alley by shutting down the floo to add to the chaos is no small feat. But the icing on the cake is that well timed reopening of the Septenary's floo to get these papers. I applaud your strategic gifts."

"Many do, Milady. The real trick is knowing your opponents on a more… _personal_ level. Perhaps we could work together in the future? I've found this an enjoyable venture."

The woman smiled, tucking her deep black hair behind her ears. "As have I, perhaps we should discuss this in more detail at a later date. See if we have similar ambitions." She smiled, "Now, what can you tell me about the book you hired the boy to steal?"

"I can't open it."

"What?"

"I've tried everything I can think of, but it can only be opened by a spell that I don't have at the moment. I believe the old man kept it under lock and key, so to speak."

"Well, that's obvious," the woman remarked drily. "I take it it's not in here then?"

"I checked. We just got a bunch of diagrams, some notes, a few essays, a star chart and a recipe for carrot cake. They're not very well organized."

"Well, perhaps there is another way to get the spell. The archives in the Ministry have information on many dangerous and illegal books that they've been trying to find for years. If you care to make another plan…"

"Absolutely, the dark magic in this book is worth the effort. Trust me." Behind his golden mask, the man smiled.

Oo0Oo0

_**Author's Note: This began as a character study that has now grown far out of control. This whole thing was originally one story but I'm splitting it into two stories for a few reasons. **_

_**One: Shipping, I'd feel bad for everyone who'd have to read through 13 chapters before they got to shipping. I'd probably get hate mail too.**_

_**Two: The two stories set the stage for a Next Generation plotline that I have been thinking about for some time. There are things I needed to think through for it and I wanted something to write about in the mean time, considering my mother took the internet over the summer, so this was born. I wanted to explore the idea and sort out some plot threads that I may not think through completely in just an outline. Yes, the two could be considered origin stories for the plotline. **_

_**Three: I wanted to give Audrey some kind of origin story in my own mind, and explore her personality and her life before she married Percy, because we know nothing about her. I wanted to also explore the world post-war through the eyes of a character that had suffered, felt cheated by those in power, and managed to retain some semblance of humanity in a horrible situation.**_

_**I hope you've enjoyed my study of the character of Audrey as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Everything for the second story is planned out, now I just need to write it out. The traitor will be revealed in the second part. **_

_**REVIEW! If there's anything you think I need to improve on, now's the time.**_


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